


Written in the Stars

by Takara_Phoenix



Category: Original Work
Genre: Aliens, Animal Mascots, Asexual Character, Asexual Jessie, Bisexual Character, Bisexual Tanya, Elemental Magic, F/F, F/M, Families of Choice, Family Feels, Fantasy, Fluff, Gen, Genderfluid Character, Genderfluid Joss, Hurt/Comfort, Lesbian Babs, Lesbian Character, M/M, Multi, Pansexual Character, Pansexual Jamie, Past Child Abuse, Polyamory, Science Fiction, Sibling Love, Superheroes, Supervillains, Team Bonding, Team Forming, Team as Family, Threesome - M/M/M, both? both. both is good, more tags will follow depending on how the story evolves, zodiacs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-19
Updated: 2019-02-23
Packaged: 2019-03-06 23:15:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 42,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13421694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Takara_Phoenix/pseuds/Takara_Phoenix
Summary: The lives of twelve young people in Los Angeles are turned upside-down when with a meteor-shower, a group of manifestations of aliens land on Earth. The manifestations of the Zodiac signs. Those twelve creatures came to bond with twelve humans, giving them special powers to fight aliens attacking Earth.They have to learn how to fight, to form teams and find out who to trust.





	1. Matteo di Girasole

 

✪ || Melanya || ~★~ || Jamikatt || ~☆~ || Written in the Stars || ~☆~ || Jamikatt || ~★~ || Melanya || ✪

 

Title: Written in the Stars – The Adventures of the Zodiac Alliance

Disclaimer : All rights reserved to me.

Warnings: polyamory (m/m/m), superpowers/superheroes, team as family, fluff, hurt/comfort, past child abuse, explicit intercourse, anal, oral, m/f, f/f

Main Pairing: Mike/Matt/Jamie & Mel/Tanya

Side Pairings: Rick/Lizzy, Sander/Joss, Basty/Angel, Sylvester/Sonia, Doc/Laureen, Arthur/Donna, Julio/Marcy, Antonio/Isabel, Tito/Oriana, Román/Lorena, Juan/Julia

Characters : 

_ **Unicorn Princess Squad** _ : Matteo 'Matt' di Girasole, Detective Michael 'Mike' Maguire, Melanie 'Mel' Maguire, Tatiana 'Tanya' Tarasova

_ **Team Lionheart** _ : James 'Jamie' Saint John,  Jessica 'Jessie' Saint John,  Babara 'Babs' Burkhart, Elizabeth 'Lizzy' Liddell

_ **Team Angel Fish** _ :  Angelique 'Angel' Lamour, Sebastian 'Basty' Weinberg, Joseph/ine 'Joss' Parker

_ **Police Station** _ : Captain Amelie 'Amy' Lacroix, Doctor Charles 'Doc' Jones, Detective Ricardo 'Rick' Alfaro Tapia, Officer Eduardo 'Eddie' Alfaro Tapia, Officer Aljoshka 'Josh' Lebedinov

_ **Saint John's Pub** _ : Donna Ó Maolmhuaidh, Arthur Fitzroy, Gaenor 'Nor' Ó Lynn, Ronald 'Chess' Chesterton, Ryuunosuke 'Ryuu' Shimizu

_ **Others** _ : Doctor Savitri 'Sunny' Korrapati, Katherine 'Kit' Renard, Veronica 'Nikki' Saylor, Malik Al-Amin, Sylvester Silberstein, Mitchell 'Mitch' Dixon

_** Gold Standard ** _ : Sonia Gold, Sander Mari Hancock, Wiley McNamara

_ **Red Queen Records** _ : Carroll 'Carry' Lewis, Belinda Brandt, Anyanka 'Anya' Lebedinova

_ **Family Members** _ : Alaula Pele 'Ally' Ahuura, Leander 'Andy' Vaughn, Marcella 'Marcy' di Girasole, Rémy Lamour, Mackenzie 'Mack' Maguire

_ **Family Alfaro** _ : Cleo Rosales Alfaro, Julio Rosales Alfaro, Timón 'Timmy' Alfaro Belmonte, Tomás 'Tommy' Alfaro Belmonte, Enrique Alfaro Tapia, Antonio Alfaro Aiza, Isabel Tapia Vela, Juan Alfaro Arenas, Julia Aiza Arriola

_ **Family Liddell** _ : Laureen Liddell, Mary Liddell, Henry Liddell, Francis 'Frank' Liddell, Anabel Liddell, Quanna Liddell, Dean Liddell

 

Summary: The lives of twelve young people in Los Angeles is turned upside-down when with a meteor-shower, a group of manifestations of the Zodiacs land on Earth. Those twelve creatures came to bond with twelve humans, giving them special powers to fight aliens attacking Earth.

The problem is to actually _find_ each other and form a team. Friendships and relationships are tested with this huge secret, while new friendships and relationships form.

And in the middle of this mess are Mike, a cop with the LAPD, his fiance Matt, who now have to juggle a superhero secret identity while trying to woo Jamie, a young bar-owner they have been smitten with for a while now. Can they balance both...?

 

**Written in the Stars**

_ The Adventures of the Zodiac Alliance _

 

_Chapter 1: Matteo di Girasole_

 

Matt smiled thinly as he straightened his tie. He was exhausted after this long day, but he has had this meeting on his radar for two weeks now so skipping was not an option, regardless of how much he wanted to go home and curl up on the couch with his fiance, whining about his long day while Mike would give one of his magical foot-rubs. Maybe Ace would even be willing to lower himself to some cuddles - though knowing their arrogant kitty-cat, he’d lift his tail and walk away from Matt as he did every day. They really needed to get a more cuddly and _nice_ kitten.

“Mister di Girasole, I’m so glad you could make it.”

Matt did his best to fill out his smile to that ‘a hundred watt smile of yours, sunshine’, as his fiance liked to call it. Sonia Gold looked stunning as always. Honestly, the woman was a little scary in just how perfect she appeared all the time. Not a hair out of place on her honey-blonde hair, jade-green eyes sparkling as she smiled at him politely, the white suit not having a single unwanted wrinkle.

“Miss Gold. It’s a pleasure to finally meet in person”, replied Matt and reached out for her.

She raised one eyebrow as she smiled at him. This woman was top-notch, a businesswoman nearly unmatched. Matt had a lot of respect for her, he had done plenty of research before setting up this meeting.

“I have to admit, this is... not the kind of location I expected to be taken for a business dinner with the CEO of Chiron Training”, drawled Sonia.

She looked wearily at the establishment they had met at. Matt smiled pleasantly as he pushed the door open and motioned ofr her to go ahead. He instantly felt a bit more relaxed in this familiar environment. The “home away from home”, as Mike liked to call it because the couple spent so much time here.

“I find the... high-class establishments to be too stuffy. And too many noisy people with ears of interest trying to listen into the deals made there”, replied Matt casually. “Not to mention, this place has the best burgers I’ve ever eaten.”

Sonia chuckled amused and followed, clearly intrigued by this odd approach. The bartender looked up from where she was wiping down the bar, broad grin on her freckled face as she recognized Matt.

“Left the better half at home today, eh?”, called the young woman out.

“Jessica”, greeted Matt with a short nod. “Table for two?”

“Take yer pick”, replied Jessica, wildly gesturing around the nearly empty pub.

“The _Saint John’s_ is the preferred place to eat for me and my fiance”, elaborated Matt as he went to his regular table.

It was still pretty early so the Irish pub was practically empty aside from Jessica behind the bar and two of the elderly regulars who enjoyed a good lamb stew for dinner. Matt nodded at them in greeting as he pulled a chair back for Sonia.

“I was pleasantly surprised to hear from you, Mister di Girasole”, stated Sonia as Matt sat down opposite her. “There’s been rumors about you looking for a new ad campaign.”

Matt hummed in confirmation as they opened their menus. He was the CEO and founder of one of the biggest sports-equipment companies world wide - _Chiron Training_. They were currently ironing out a new image of sorts. A new ad campaign, a new face to the name. For that, he was seeking out a new partner to work on said campaign. He had his PA go through all possible advertisement companies.

And Tanya was _very_ thorough with everything she did. She had also found out from Sonia’s assistant that Sonia Gold tended to order burgers for lunch when frustrated. Which meant that burgers were her comfort food. So taking her here, that was strategical. Also, Matt really loved the burgers here - and the view.

“What can I get for you?”, asked Jessica curiously.

“The same as always”, replied Matt with a small smile.

Sonia hummed as she went through the menu. “Oh. Mh. I’ll go with a double-cheese bacon burger. And I suppose... an ice tea.”

Jessica saluted them and turned around to pass the order on to the kitchen.

“I want a... broader campaign”, started Matt. “We’ve been mainly defined by America’s favorite passtime and all things ball-game.”

“Something that speaks to more than just the teenage boys and dads of those?”, chuckled Sonia amused.

Matt confirmed with a gentle hum. “I’ve seen the wonders you did with other firms.”

The two of them talked shop for a couple minutes until the owner and cook of the pub _personally_ brought their meals. The pub wasn't very hands-on with the staff, it was run by the Saint John siblings and though they had some hands to help them behind the bar and in the kitchen, it was mainly just them. They had one waitress, but mainly it was a system of ordering at the bar and self-pickup. Occasionally, James Saint John - or Jamie, as he preferred to be called (and by ‘preferred', Matt really meant that Jamie's sister had enforced the nickname and made sure everybody used it until Jamie accepted his fate) - would bring them their food personally, if there wasn't a lot going on. Matt liked to read a little more into it though. He turned to offer Jamie a charming smile.

Oh, how was that guy allowed to be this pretty? His gentle, reddish-brown curls framed his face at chin-length, freckles adored his pale skin and then there were his dark, gentle green eyes. Jamie returned Matt’s smile, his pale cheeks darkening just a little. It was cute how easy the other man could be flustered considering he was about a head taller than Matt and athletic.

“Thank you, Jamie”, said Matt, voice soft.

“What can I say? You rich folks bring me and my sister good money. Have to keep you entertained”, grinned Jamie teasingly. “Enjoy your food.”

Matt’s eyes lingered on Jamie’s retreating form. It wasn’t his fault that Jamie’s retreating form included that heart-shaped butt in the tight leather-pants. Sonia opposite him cleared her throat. Her jade eyes were sharp and calculating.

“If you brought me to your boy toy’s bar to make him feel like ‘you really want to include him and you’re so going to leave your fiance for him, you swear’, then I will take this burger and any negotiations off the table and leave”, warned Sonia.

Matt blinked slowly, stunned. Was he truly that transparent? He had always prided himself on his schooled features and his good poker-face. Sure, Mike could read him - but the two of them had been dating for years now - and Mike’s sister, because she was ‘exposed to the both of them far too often’. But this woman, who had known him for half an hour now...?

Well, her sharp perception was one of the reasons he had picked her. She was wonderful at analyzing every situation and accessing it. It was what made her so good at her job.

And that sharp and short threat was the final reason why he had picked her.

Tanya, the brilliant genius of a Private Assistant that she was, had gathered all the intel needed and then some more. Sonia Gold had a strong sense of moral and she always followed her moral compass, even if it cost her money. She had once slapped a million dollar deal into her business partner’s face after the jerk had made crude comments about Sonia’s PA for ‘not making up her-his-its damn mind’ (from Tanya, he knew that Sonia’s PA was genderfluid).

Sonia Gold held her business to the _Gold Standard_ and she herself lived it too.

That was the kind of person and firm Matt wanted to work with. He offered her a bemused smile over the rim of his glass. A good thing that he knew she was also trustworthy, wouldn’t share gossip and secrets for her own gain, due to her moral compass.

“Not an affair, I assure you, Miss Gold”, drawled Matt lowly. “More a... shared interest of my fiance’s and mine.”

Sonia raised one elegant eyebrow, looking at him intensely as though she was trying to detect a lie. When she deemed it the truth, she lifted her burger up to take a bite.

“Oh, you weren’t lying about that either”, hummed Sonia pleased. “This might just be the best burger I’ve ever eaten.”

“It’s the home-made barbeque sauce”, stated Matt seriously and with a light grin. “Now, do you think we can continue with business?”

“I suppose”, mused Sonia. “Though I’d love to meet your fiance some time. Perhaps we can set something up to celebrate the deal we’re going to negotiate now. A double-date.”

“That sounds wonderful. I’m sure Michael would love it”, replied Matt with a charming smile.

 

/~*~\

 

By the time the rough outlines for the deal stood and Matt finally returned home, it was long dark and his prediction about Ace proved to be true. The unfaithful cat didn’t even look at him with his ass. Matt huffed offended as the cat continued sleeping while he made his way past the couch.

“Caro, sono a casa”, called Matt out softly before sighing. “...If you’re still awake.” [Italian trans: _Honey, I’m home_ ]

“Mh... Whazzat?”, slurred a tired, sleep-rough voice.

A messy mop of black hair emerged from the couch. Matt smiled softly. He should have known. Even with an early shift tomorrow, Mike would still wait for him. Running his fingers through his hair, he loosened the bun in the base of his neck and let his collarbone-long hair fall free while stalking up to his fiance. Mike still looked drowsy, the unshaved scruff giving him that rough edge that Matt loved so much. Straddling Mike’s waist, Matt leaned down to kiss the sleepy man.

“Buona sera, mi amore”, whispered Matt gently. [Italian trans: _Good evening, my love_ ]

“Right back at cha”, yawned Mike with a pleased grin.

He wrapped his strong arms around Matt’s waist, pulling him down. Sighing contently, Matt snuggled up to his fiance’s chest, finally able to relax for the day. Mike started gently running his fingers through Matt’s hair in that way that made Matt go lax.

“How was the meeting, sunshine?”, asked Mike. “Twas an important one, right? With that silver lady?”

“Gold lady”, correted Matt with soft amusement. “And I think it went pretty well. She wants to meet you. Double date with her and her boyfriend Sander.”

“Mh...”, grunted Mike, kissing the top of Matt’s head. “See. Knew you’d rock this, babe.”

Matt snorted in fond amusement and tucked his head under Mike’s chin. “How was your day? Locked a lot of bad guys up? Got a headache from Rick again?”

The groan escaping Mike’s lips told Matt that yes, Rick _had_ given him a hard time. Not that it was actually serious. Mike and Rick had been partners since the day they graduated the police academy and they were so inseparable that Matt was about 95% sure that they were obligated to name their firstborn child after Rick at this point.

“We ran so late that I couldn’t get lunch because of a stupid case”, muttered Mike, sounding like he was pouting.

“Mh. You missed out on the dark-red leather-pants”, whispered Matt teasingly.

Mike groaned again, pinching Matt’s ass. “Don’t tease. _Brat_.”

Matt yelped and laughed. Mike and Rick spending their lunch at the _Saint John’s Pub_ was how they had even learned about the establishment and how they had met Jamie. Though it had taken Mike months before he had dared to take Matt there the first time and then some more weeks before he had admitted to having a giant crush on Jamie. At that point, Matt was already gone himself.

“What are my chances that you’ll carry me to bed, amore?”, asked Matt hopefully.

“...We’re gonna sleep on the couch tonight. It’s why we bought a super expensive, giant-ass couch”, grunted Mike seriously.

Matt sighed and grabbed the blanket from the backrest of the couch and pulled it over himself and his fiance. Both of them were too tired to get up or to get changed. And Mike was right, this was why they had bought the expensive couch.

“Buona notte e sogni d’oro”, whispered Matt, kissing Mike’s collarbone. [Italian trans: _Good night and sweet dreams_ ]

“Mhmh, night, sunshine”, replied Mike, kissing the top of Matt’s head.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Matt's [character sheet can be found here](https://the-zodiacs-written-in-the-stars.tumblr.com/post/169847352302/sagittarius-matteo-di-girasole) and [superhero/civil design can be found here](https://the-zodiacs-written-in-the-stars.tumblr.com/post/176162901017/sagittarius-matteo-di-girasole-character-sheet).


	2. Michael Maguire

✪ || Melanya || ~★~ || Jamikatt || ~☆~ || Written in the Stars || ~☆~ || Jamikatt || ~★~ || Melanya || ✪

 

 

 

_Chapter 2: Michael Maguire_

  


“Just a little shorter, okay?”, grunted Mike gruffly.

His older sister gave him a pointed glare as she held the buzzer in her hand. “Why you don’t just go to a hairdresser for this is completely beyond me. I’m a literature professor, I’m not—oh.”

“…Oh?”, echoed Mike slightly nervous.

“I’m just saying that you are _literally dating a billionaire_ ”, grumbled his sister.

“What was that ‘oh’, Melanie”, demanded Mike to know tensely.

Melanie pursed her lips and grabbed her phone to snap a picture. 2It’s not as bad as it looks and I might be able to fix it, but you should have just gone to someone professional.”

“Oh god, what did you do to my hair? Matt will _leave_ me”, grunted Mike wide-eyed.

Melanie rolled her blue-green eyes at him in a very pointed manner. “Sure. Because your lush, black hair was the only reason why he was dating you.”

Mike squinted at her, glaring back at her with the same blue-green eyes. “No. But my bad decision-making is one of the main things he keeps complaining about, Mel. Now _fix this somehow_.”

“I _told_ you to go to a salon”, warned Melanie one last time.

  


/~*~\

  


Rick had been cackling at him _all morning long_ and it had not helped improve his mood at all. And it did so not get better when the two partners entered the _Saint John’s Pub_. Jessica behind the bar literally broke out into laughter the moment Mike was within her sight.

“Jamie! Jamie, come out! You _have_ to see this. Mike lost a bet to Rick!”, exclaimed Jessica.

Mike glared darkly at the bartender as he and Rick sat down in front of her. Rick grinned broadly, nudging Mike with a sharp elbow just as Jamie came out of the kitchen. The cook looked way too cute again. His reddish-brown curls were tied together in the back of his neck though it was too short to hold so a few strands kept slipping out and framing his face prettily. His freckles seemed more prominent when he was blushing like right now.

“W–What happened to your hair?”, asked Jamie surprised.

“My sister”, glowered Mike with a deadpan. “My sister happened to my hair.”

“You look like you have a midlife-crisis, mi hermano”, chuckled Rick, clapping him on the shoulder. [trans, Spanish: _my brother_ ]

“First of all”, grunted Mike, glaring at his best friend. “I’m 28. This is _not_ the middle of my life, you bag of dicks. And secondly, it’s… not that bad.”

He turned downright pleading eyes on Jamie, hoping the Irish man would have some mercy on him. Jamie’s dark-green eyes softened

“Well, no. It actually looks kinda good, the undercut suits you”, smiled Jamie. “It’s just… unusual. I’ve only ever seen you in two states: Prim and proper short-cut and unruly, needs a trim mop.”

“You really do need to get a haircut regularly. By a professional”, agreed Rick.

“What’s the occasion anyway?”, asked Jamie curiously, leaning against the bar. “You only ever get a haircut when Mattie has something big planned.”

Mike rolled his eyes. “A double-date. With some big business partner and her boyfriend. I am _so_ looking forward to it.”

“You’re such a bad liar”, snorted Jamie fondly.

Mike smiled faintly. Jamie always managed to lift his mood. It was why he had first fallen for the Irish man, because Jamie was always there and kind and caring. Also gorgeous, lithe with strong arms and chest (Mike had seen Jamie without a shirt on before. It was a nice view. Very nice).

“Mattie and I will come around them them at… seven-ish? Keep a table for four free for us?”, requested Mike.

“We don’t make reservations”, snorted Jessica, throwing a towel at Mike.

“Not even for two billionaires sharing a business dinner”, huffed Mike and rolled his eyes at her.

“Don’t think your fiance’s money gets you special treatment around here”, countered Jessica sternly.

  


/~*~\

  


There was a table saved for the four of them by the time they went out for dinner. Mike pulled his tie loose; he hated wearing a monkey-suit, but Matt had insisted. Though he loved Matt and Matt looked _gorgeous_ in his own suit, so it was a bit of a compromise.

“Relax, amore”, whispered Matt gently, arms linked with Mike.

“Easier said than done”, grumbled Mike grumpily.

Laughing softly, Matt got on his tiptoes to kiss Mike, effectively soothing his fiance. Sighing, Mike relaxed at least a little. They met the other couple in front of the retaurant. He, a tall, lanky and awkward nerd adjusting his glasses and wearing clothes fit for a fifty year old, she the embodiment of a head-strong career woman. She smiled at them as she offered her hand to Mike.

“Sonia Gold. It’s a pleasure to meet you”, introduced the woman.

“Michael Maguire. And likewise, Miss Gold”, replied Mike politely as he shook her hand.

“Sander Hancock”, stated her boyfriend cortly, seizing Matt up as they shook hands.

“Matteo di Girasole”, said Matt, mimicking Sander’s way of introduction.

This evening was going to be _so much fun_. Mike conveyed that message to his lover with one hard look. Matt quirked his lip just a little, a fond spark in his bright eyes.

The two couples sat down and studied the menu in silence. Not that Mike and Matt couldn’t cite it with their eyes blindfolded by now. So after only a moment, Mike let his eyes wander. He paused when he spotted Jamie sitting on top of the bar, kicking his legs back and forth. His dark-red shirt hugged his arms and shoulders _nicely_. Mike grunted and elbowed Matt. Matt’s replying glare melted when he noticed why Mike had elbowed him. Jamie seemed to be engaged in a very animated conversation (read: ridiculous discussion) with his sister Jessica. Matt hummed in appreciation as he rested his chin on Mike’s shoulder.

“He looks good in red”, whispered Matt very softly. “I really like that shirt.”

“Mhmh”, grunted Mike in reply. “Know where it’d look even better?”

“He’s too lithe for that and too tall. It’d be too long and too tight at the same time on me”, grunted Matt with a deadpan.

“…I wasn’t talking about you, sunshine. I was talking about our bedroom floor”, grunted Mike with just the smallest, teasing grin.

“Oooh. Mh. Yes”, nodded Matt pleased, kissing Mike’s cheek.

“The two of you are ridiculously smitten.”

Matt and Mike blinked slowly before tearing their eyes off of Jamie and looking at their companions. Sonia had one eyebrow raised, an amused smile playing on her lips as she leaned back in her chair. She seemed pleased.

Mike knew what the point of this dinner was. Mainly, Sonia had not quite believed Matt’s claims during their first meeting, that Jamie was in fact not some sideline affair Matt’s fiance had no idea about. Mike smiled and wrapped one arm around Matt’s shoulders, drawing the half-Italian closer against himself.

“It’s hard not to. Have you seen that ass in those leather pants?”, asked Mike playfully, gesturing to the bar.

“…Sonia, if you could not”, sighed Sander in fond exasperation.

Sonia just grinned and dismissed him with wave of her hand. “But it _is_ a nice ass. Just see for yourself, Sandy.”

Sander gave her a hard glare for the nickname before obediently checking said nice ass out himself. “…Did we really only come here to check the owner out?”

“No. The burgers. We mainly came here for the burgers”, hummed Sonia.

Mike grinned just a little bit. He had a feeling he could really get along with those two. Which, such a nice change from the stiffs Matt usually had to work with. Those made Mike _wish_ for someone to rob the restaurant so he could get to work and sneak out with the colleagues.

And true to that prediction, the evening was actually rather nice. More like an outing with new friends than an actual business arrangement. As they left the restaurant to make their way back home, the two couples paused in surprise.

“Shooting stars. Beautiful, but… I didn’t read anything about a shower?”, mused Sonia softly.

“Oh, we have to make a wish!”, exclaimed Matt, tugging on Mike’s arm.

Both of them closed their eyes. It was a silly tradition that the Maguire siblings had always shared, ever since they were little, still living in London and sitting on their rooftop watching their first meteor shower. When they opened their eyes again, the sky was back to normal and the shooting stars were gone.

“Well, it was a please to meet you”, started Sander with a sharp nod.

“We should do this again”, suggested Matt brightly.

“I’d love to, darling”, agreed Sonia and pulled him close for a routine of kiss-right-kiss-left.

Sonia and Sander headed down the streets into the opposite direction and Matt and Mike wanted to go on their way too when a car pulled up right beside them.

“Did you sign the contract? Did it go without a hitch?”

Mike knew he should not be surprised, but he was still startled when Matt’s best friend slash personal assistant looked at them demandingly from the driver’s seat. Tatiana Tarasova was _scary_ , to put it mildly. Sometimes, Mike was sure she could just materialize out of thin air.

“…How do you even know we’re here, Tanya?”, asked Mike stunned.

“I can read minds. It’s a Russian thing”, drawled Tanya with a serious deadpan before rolling her eyes. “I’m Matt’s assistant. I know his schedule.”

“Oh. Makes sense. Not as much sense as the mind reading, but…”, nodded Mike.

“Do you want to get in the car so I can drive you home, or do you want to walk? And will _anyone_ answer my question?”, asked Tanya pointedly.

“It went well. She will come to the office for the official signing tomorrow morning”, replied Matt with a smile as they got into the car.

As soon as the couple sat on the backseats, Matt leaned contently against Mike and closed his eyes in sheer exhaustion. Mike smiled softly and kissed the top of his lover’s head gently.

By the time they finally got home, both were already half asleep. Mike yawned widely as he got his keys and phone out of his pockets. He paused when he felt something cold and found in his pocket. Slowly, he pulled his hand out and put the objects on the table. Keys, phone and… a marble? Frowning confused, Mike took the small, dark-blue marble and rolled it around between his fingers. It was made of glass, from the feel of it. Squinting, he took a closer look as he saw something enclosed inside the glass. Black letters. No. Numbers? He turned the marble until he could properly identify them. 69. Huh. Strange.

“Mikey? You coming to bed or do you want to sleep on the couch…?”

Shaking his head and putting the marble down, Mike turned toward their bedroom. “Coming, sunshine.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mike's [character sheet can be found here](https://the-zodiacs-written-in-the-stars.tumblr.com/post/169858451827/cancer-michael-maguire) and [superhero/civil design can be found here](https://the-zodiacs-written-in-the-stars.tumblr.com/post/176162903307/cancer-michael-maguire-character-sheet-here).


	3. Tatiana Tarasova

✪ || Melanya || ~★~ || Jamikatt || ~☆~ || Written in the Stars || ~☆~ || Jamikatt || ~★~ || Melanya || ✪

 

 

 

_Chapter 3: Tatiana Tarasova_

  


Tanya yawned as she woke up at 5:30AM sharp, like every morning.

Tanya had a very precise schedule, she always had. Routine was important to her; it was what kept the world going, or so her dyedushka used to tell her when she was a little girl, visiting her grandparents in Saint Petersburg.

Sitting up, she brushed her hair out of her face and made her way to her closet. The clothes for today were already set out, she just took them with her. In passing, she straightened her watch on the nightstand. Everything had its place, its very precise place. She paused and retracked her steps as she noticed that the reason her watch had been off its spot had been that there was something that did not belong there.

A marble.

Tanya frowned. She did not remember _owning_ a marble. It was turquoise in color, with two black zigzag lines enclosed inside. The symbol of Aquarius; her Zodiac. How odd. Had she perhaps gotten the thing from someone sentimental? Matt, perhaps...?

Taking the marble into her hand, she turned it over once. It was pretty. She had a weakness for perfect forms. Smiling slightly, she put the marble back down for now and instead continued on to the bathroom.

Matt did that, occasionally. Being sweet. He knew she didn’t let a lot of people in - then again, neither did Matt. They were both workaholics with not much time for a private life.

But at least Matt had a fiance, had taken enough time to himself to find _love_. And as much as Tanya loved to mock Mike - it was a mutual thing between them - she appreciated how much Mike loved and cherished her boss and best friend. And Mike’s older sister. Tanya had met the woman only briefly at galas before, but far as she knew, the woman was on very good terms with Matt. Tanya liked to tease him that he was buttering up the in-laws.

“Hello!”

Tanya blinked slowly, brushing her long, blonde hair back behind her ear. Her other arm tightened around her clothes. She blinked again, tilting her head a little.  
“A... a lizard?”, whispered Tanya lowly, carefully stepping back. “Nichuya sebe! Which of my neighbors keeps _a lizard_?!” [trans, Russian: _Holy fuck_ ]

The lizard - a maybe Golden Retriever sized monstrosity of blue-green color - giggled at that. _Giggled_. Tanya took another step back.

“I’m a dragon, not a lizard, silly”, laughed the lizard.

“I am losing my mind”, muttered Tanya, her hand finding the doorhandle.

“Oh no, don’t freak out!”, pleaded the lizard - dragon - softly.

It sat up and spread its wings. Yes. Wings. Dragon. Tanya was losing her mind.

“Give me a _good_ reason why I shouldn’t freak out”, countered Tanya before pausing. “I’m talking to my hallucinations. Goodness...”

“My name is Aquarius. And you are my new human”, declared the dragon with a happy smile. “You were born under my sign and that makes you mine. But I picked you specifically last night. You... interest me.”

“Literally nothing about that was reassuring”, growled Tanya suspiciously.

The dragon - Aquarius - hopped out of the bathtub it had been sitting in. Standing, it easily reached Tanya’s knees. It looked... cute. With dots all over its body, its chest and belly a softer shade of blue-green than the rest.

“There’s a dragon in my bathroom and it talks”, muttered Tanya to herself.

“Excuse me”, huffed Aquarius and sat up with a glare. “ _She_ talks. You wouldn’t want to be referred to as an it either. Humans. The disrespect.”

Tanya opened her mouth and lifted her hand, walking out of the bathroom and then locking the door behind herself before going to the kitchen. It didn’t take her long to reach the bottle of vodka she kept stowed away for emergencies. Talking dragons with attitude were _definitely_ an emergency.

About half an hour - and more vodka than would be considered ‘good’ that early in the day - later did Tanya sit far more relaxed on her couch, staring at her phone.

_Matteo di Girasole_

The name seemed to scream at her on the phone. Should she call him? But how would she even begin to explain this? “I’m losing my mind and I’d like for you to come over and check if there is really a dragon in my bathroom”...?

“ _Tanya...? Why are you calling that early?_ ”, asked Matt sleepily as the call connected.

“I’m losing my mind and I’d like for you to come over and check if there is really a dragon in my bathroom”, requested Tanya, as calmly as she could.

“ _Who issit...?_ ”, mumbled Mike in the background. “ _Tellem it’s 6 in the fucking morning, sunshine..._ ”

“ _Shush, amore_ ”, chided Matt gently before returning back to Tanya. “ _Define what you mean by ‘dragon’..._ ”

“I mean a scaly, large lizard with wings”, replied Tanya factually. “Oh, and it talks. She talks. It’s a female dragon, apparently.”

“... _I’ll... I’ll be there in a bit. Just sit tight and wait, okay, tesorina_ ”, assured Matt gently. [trans, Italian: _darling_ ]

Tanya nodded sharply, even though he couldn’t see that. She sat and waited until her door was unlocked. Matt had a key to her apartment, she had a key to Matt’s; it was simply efficient that way.

“Hey, tesorina, are you alright?”, asked Matt, voice soft and calm.

He approached her with haste steps and gently grasped her cheeks, making her look up. Mike grumbled as he came stomping in after Matt.

“There’s a dragon in my bathroom”, stated Tanya.

“Are... Are you drunk?”, asked Matt carefully, looking at the bottle of vodka.

“Yes. but that’s beside the point. The dragon was there _before_ I got drunk”, grunted Tanya defensively.

“Okay. Bathroom?”, grunted Mike and heaved a sigh. “I’ll go, tell you there is nothing, we bring you to the next psychiatry and check you in for a night. Or something.”

Tanya glared at him but she remained silent. Dreadful. He was going to go in there and then tell her that she was indeed crazy. Matt squeezed her arm gently, in a reassuring way.

“Holy shit! There’s a _fucking dragon_ in the bathtub! And it just threw _soap at me_!”

“Michael”, stated Matt sharply. “That’s...”

Though he paused as he looked toward his fiance. Mike was rubbing his forehead, holding a pink bar of soap in the other hand as he stumbled out of the bathroom, closely followed by... the dragon. Tanya watched it tensely.

“What... What is that?”, asked Matt in awe.

“So... you can see it too?”, asked Tanya, torn between relief and even more panic.

“Of course they can see me”, huffed the dragon offended. “I’m _real_. And you are a very rude human. Locking me into your water-room and then calling your companions.”

“What... What do you want, dragon?”, asked Matt, staring the dragon down.

But she just sat up and sniffed the air before narrowing her eyes at them. It was a cute dragon. Very adorable. If Tanya really wasn't going crazy, then she was glad it was a cute dragon.

“You”, hissed Aquarius, nipping at Mike's pants and effectively biting a hole into the pocket.

Mike's keys fell down onto the floor, together with a marble. The dark-blue glass-pearl rolled over toward Aquarius and the dragon looked rather irritated at it before she swatted it. Tanya sat frozen for a moment before she bolted off the couch and toward her nightstand, where a very similar marble had been just this morning. Returning, she laid it down beside the blue one.

“Huh. Wait. I found such a thing in my pocket this morning too?”, grunted Matt thoughtfully, fishing for a yellow glass-marble with an arrow encased inside.

“Oh. Oh! Sag!”, yelped the dragon excitedly, wagging her tail.

The yellow marble in Matt’s hand glowed and Matt dropped it in surprise when a _yellow horse with a horn_ materialized out of thin air. Matt took a step back and collapsed right next to Tanya on the couch. Tanya absentmindedly reached a hand out to pat his thigh reassuringly.

“A pretty princess for me?”, asked the unicorn and approached Tanya.

A dragon and a unicorn. Yes, she had officially entered a strange parallel universe of sorts. Or something. Aquarius growled and climbed up on the couch to sit down on Tanya’s lap.

“No! Back off, Sagittarius, this is my human! Your is this one!”, hissed Aquarius.

The unicorn tilted her head and turned to look at Matt with utter disappointment. “...Not a pretty princess.”

“I feel oddly offended by the unicorn. Tanya, what in the world is going on here?”, asked Matt utterly overwhelmed.

“I have no idea”, sighed Tanya, turning to look at her best friend.

“Congratulations, the three of you are now heroes. We are your companions, your guides into the supernatural world”, announced a gruff male voice.

At that point, even Mike was sitting down on  the couch, wrapping one arm around Matt’s shoulders. He leaned heavily into his fiance for support, but he didn’t forget about Tanya, linking their fingers. Tanya squeezed gently as a blue crab crawled up to the three marbles on the floor. It glared grumpily at them.

“I am Cancer. I am assigned to the unshaved one”, grunted the crab.

“It’s six-thirty in the morning! Don’t expect me to shave!”, argued Mike offended. “And I have a name. I’m Mike. Michael Maguire.”

Cancer nodded, making a vague motion with his claw. “Hello, Mike Michael Maguire. It will be my _honor_ to work with you. I have worked with great and powerful warriors in the past and I am looking forward to seeing you shape up to be one of them.”

Cancer generally did not look like he looked forward to anything. Ever. Tanya rested a hand on Aquarius’ head, patting it a little. The dragon cooed pleased and nudged back against her hand.

“I’m Aquarius. I’m your companion and guide and all that”, stated the dragon happily, turning to look at Tanya expectantly.

“Dobroye utro”, nodded Tanya distractedly. “I’m Tanya Tarasova.” [trans, Russian: _Good morning_ ]

“I’m Sagittarius”, drawled the unicorn with a pout. “And I guess I’m your companion. You have pretty hair. But I wanted a _princess_.”

“Apollo wasn’t a princess either and you loved him”, reminded Aquarius with a chime to her voice. “Maybe this human will be another Apollo and you will love him lots.”

That seemed to lift Sagittarius’ mood and the unicorn stepped closer to sniff Matt, who still looked mildly offended but also greatly fascinated.

“Wait, what... does hero mean? Apollo?”, echoed Mike stiffly, looking at Cancer.

“Yes! We’re guardian patrons. Think of us as aliens, if that helps you?”, offered Sagittarius. “We visit Earth regularly, when there is a... danger. We come down to Earth, claim humans and fight with them. Once, I fought with a young man, his name was Apollo. I loved him dearly. He was a great warrior and a gentle soul.”

“Apollo is a god. From a _myth_ ”, grunted Mike with a frown.

“Sure. Because your kind would have absolutely accepted the concept of aliens coming down to bond with humans and bestow them with special powers”, grunted Cancer with a dry deadpan. “You _tend_ to lift them up into god-status.”

“Think about it”, prompted Aquarius with a smile. “Twelve Zodiac guardians. That funny little religion of yours had _twelve_ major gods. They were ours. We claimed them and gave them their special abilities, powers to make them stronger. And they fought with us. Other humans, they thought that those chosen ones had to be something else. Something otherworldly. Gods.”

Tanya turned to lock eyes with Matt, who just shrugged. “I mean, I suppose an alien symbiosis makes... more sense than gods? Maybe? I don’t know.”

“And the monsters the gods fought against...? The titans and giants...?”, asked Tanya carefully, searching for Aquarius’ eyes.

“Aliens. Too. As we just explained, when danger threatens Earth, we come to seek out our champions. Danger is here. And you are three of our champions”, replied Aquarius gently.

“Wait, does that mean I control the _sun_ now?!”, exclaimed Matt wide-eyed. “Apollo. The god of the sun, right?”

“...These humans will be tiresome”, muttered Cancer frustrated. “No. You are not some kind of second coming of some fictional gods. They weren’t gods. And the attributes given to them in myths are exaggerations. You are your own person. You will receive elemental powers, through your respective partner. Elemental. Not some nonsense like ‘king of the ocean’ or ‘god of war’. Ares was just very... confrontational and thus, he earned himself such a reputation. Kid really could have been more level-headed.”

“Yes”, confirmed Aquarius, glaring pointedly at Cancer before returning her eyes to Tanya. “The... realms attributed to our former heroes are just amplifications of their personalities and their specific character traits. They have no connection to you."

Tanya nodded slowly and tried breathing deeply. It made sense. Certain character traits were always exaggerated in retellings. Cleopatra, the super-pretty one. While other traits were simply skipped or deliberately forgotten. Cleopatra, the wise strategist. So the Olympian gods had been real, normal people, who met alien creatures and got special powers from them. Normal humans with no alien encounter just tried to make _sense_ of those super-powered beings and thus announced them gods.

Honestly, it made as much sense as Tanya would expect something to make sense that came from a talking dragon that had materialized from a glass-marble.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tanya's [character sheet can be found here](https://the-zodiacs-written-in-the-stars.tumblr.com/post/169898042602/aquarius-tatiana-tarasova) and [superhero/civil design can be found here](https://the-zodiacs-written-in-the-stars.tumblr.com/post/172892070157/aquarius-tatiana-tarasova-character-sheet-here).


	4. Mike & Matt

✪ || Melanya || ~★~ || Jamikatt || ~☆~ || Written in the Stars || ~☆~ || Jamikatt || ~★~ || Melanya || ✪

 

 

 

_Chapter 4: Mike & Matt_

 

Mike and Matt were walking quietly as they made their way back home. It was a lot to take in, after all. Both were still busy digesting it. The existence of aliens, supposedly having superpowers, gods having been superheroes – them now being superheroes.

“We could just stay home today?”, suggested Mike hopefully, squeezing Matt's hand.

Matt huffed softly, turning his head to look at his fiance. “We could. But what would it _change_? You think all of this makes more sense tomorrow? Not to mention, I have a couple important meetings today. Sonia suggested a lunch meeting for us.”

“You're way too responsible”, complained Mike as he leaned in to kiss the top of Matt's head.

“Amore, you have never missed a single day ever”, pointed Matt out with one raised eyebrow.

Mike heaved a sigh. They were probably both too responsible. Which was why they would most likely allow themselves to be dragged into whatever this mess actually was. Superheroes. His other hand, the one not holding onto Matt's, found the small glass-marble in his sweater's pocket.

Cancer was in there. Unsure how that worked, but for easier understanding, Aquarius had compared it to a djinn's lamp. Rub the marble, summon the companion inside.

“I wonder who the other nine are”, whispered Mike thoughtfully.

Matt hummed curiously, staring blankly ahead, most likely just as lost in the same kind of thoughts as Mike. There were twelve Zodiacs. There were twelve Zodiac companions. Mike, Matt and Tanya had three – that left nine still missing. Cancer had, irritated and impatiently, told the humans that the twelve of them had gotten separated during the meteor-shower. Not a rare thing, it apparently happened 'most the times' – which only made Mike wonder even more just _how often_ this had happened before. How many heroes, unknown to the world, had saved them from some strange alien-threat...? He was mildly mortified by the thought.

“Be safe”, ordered Matt as the two of them paused in front of the apartment complex.

He got on his toe-tips to kiss Mike gently, making the gruff cop smile slightly. “You too. Don't overwork yourself today, you hear me? I'll... see you tonight.”

Matt smiled as he headed inside, while Mike turned to walk on. For his day at the office, Matt needed to get changed and ready, while Mike really needed to head to the precinct.

 

~*~

 

Thankfully, today was a very slow day. Times like today made Mike really glad that life as a cop was not the same as TV made it look. Today was mainly paperwork for him and Rick and even as they went through it, Mike was aware of his partner's concerned glances.

“What's eating you up, honey-puff?”, asked Rick by the time lunch-break came close.

“Nothing”, grunted Mike, burying himself deeper in his paperwork.

“Su—ure”, grunted Rick in disbelief, leaning back some. “Don't tell me you and Matt had a fight. Yesterday, that dinner-thing with the rich people, right? Didn't go well? Wait. Don't tell me you made a fool of yourself and Matt broke up with you.”

Mike flipped him the bird without even looking up. “I can still ask someone else to be my best man. Anyone, really. We literally have a more qualified Alfaro right on this station.”

“...You're not making by baby brother your best man, hermano”, huffed Rick offended.

Mike smirked and remained quiet. Officer Eddie Alfaro was Rick's little brother who very eagerly followed his brother's footsteps into law enforcement. And teasing Rick about not being the most competent Alfaro around had essentially become a running gag at the precinct at this point.

Thankfully, he spotted someone out of the corner of his eyes who would do for a perfect change of topic. “You got a lunch date with a lovely lady today, Dick?”

Rick perked up at that, most likely expecting his fiance. By the time he turned around on his chair, the lovely lady stood right in front of him and pinched his cheeks before pulling him in to kiss his cheeks. There was a mild look of horror on Rick's face.

“Mijo! You lost weight again!”, declared the elderly woman scandalized.

“Abuelita. Abuelita, what are you doing here?”, asked Rick embarrassed.

Some of their co-workers snickered as they watched the unstoppable force of Julia Aiza de Alfaro assessing her grandson. Julia was a petite but fierce woman, who ruled the family with an iron fist and who was _not_ up for being argued with. Mike smirked and leaned back, watching Julia's husband approach them at a more relaxed pace. Juan was rather laid back and he was a man who had learned decades ago not to argue with Julia. He smiled at Rick and came to stand next to Mike.

“Dios mío, you're only skin and bones!”, complained Julia displeased.

“Abuelita, I haven't-”, tried Rick to argue.

Julia shushed him. “Only. Skin. And. _Bones_.” She punctuated every word with a jab of her finger against Rick's ribs. “See? Nothing soft. I hit bones right away!”

“Ouch”, grunted Rick, rubbing the now sore spot. “Those aren't bones, those are muscles, abuelita. I'm a well-trained detective. I work out. I'm pure muscle-mass.”

“Nonsense, mijo”, chided Julia. “You're not eating enough.”

Rick looked utterly frustrated as he tried to argue with his grandma. Mike frowned deeply and grunted, gaining their attention. Rick's eyes widened, knowing exactly what Mike was planning.

“I don't know. I mean you _did_ say you skipped breakfast this morning”, drawled Mike.

It was amusing to see Rick's eyes widen in utter horror. Julia seemed to grow two heads as she straightened and glared her grandson down. As she turned toward Juan with a fierce look, her husband smiled in an indulging way and walked over to them.

“Lunch! We will now go and eat lunch. No arguments, mijo!”, warned Julia. “Come. Come. Laureen makes wonderful pies! We will eat and then we will have pie.”

“Abuelita, I'm not even-”, started Rick to protest.

Juan chuckled and patted his grandson on the back, effectively silencing him. There was no arguing with Julia Aiza de Alfaro. Sometimes, it amazed Mike that Rick was even still _trying_.

“How are you doing, Michael?”, asked Juan with knowing eyes. “You look troubled?”

“I'm fine”, assured Mike with a slightly forced smile.

“Ah”, nodded Juan and laughed. “I know exactly what is troubling you.”

“Y—You do?”, asked Mike nervously, eyes widening because no one should know.

“Your wedding”, declared Juan, like it was the most obvious thing. “You are a young man, engaged to the love of your life. The wedding plans must put a lot of stress on you and Matteo.”

Instantly, Mike relaxed a little and sighed. “Oh. No, no. No worries about that.”

“I find that hard to believe”, stated Juan, raising one eyebrow. “I remember my wedding to Julia. I was so nervous about her parents. They were giving me quite the hard time.”

“Oh, my future in-laws adore me”, assured Mike with the smallest smile. “Giovanni has given me the protective dad speech with a special mafia-spin when we announced the engagement, but Matt just huffed and elbowed his dad and reminded him that they have no ties to the mafia. Giovanni spent the entire rest of the night pouting because Matt ruined it.”

That got him a laugh from Juan. “That's good. But it's more than just his family judging you, isn't it? You are getting married to one of the richest and most successful businessmen of North America. Every detail of your wedding will be all over the tabloids and the news.”

Somehow, Mike did not feel as relaxed anymore. His eyes widened. How had that thought never crossed his mind? Sure, he knew that he was getting married to a rich and successful man. And yes, the press had been interested in them – but they were a surprisingly boring couple; no cheating, no drama, no scandals. Though Mike had kind of planned their wedding as a normal wedding. He had never really considered that the rest of the world would partake in their wedding too, in away. The thought made him oddly nervous all of a sudden.

“Michael”, stated Julia, fixing him with a stern look and pulling him out of his thoughts. “You are coming to lunch too, mijo. Matteo does not feed you enough.”

Mike's eyes softened at that. It never failed to make him feel warm with what ease he had been adopted into this family. Even though he had only met Rick at the academy, the two had soon grown to be inseparable best friends. And as they ended up as partners at the PD, Rick's family had more than eagerly accepted him. Julia most of all, especially when she had learned that Mike was an orphan. By now they were the only family Mike and his sister could imagine.

“I can't, abuelita, but thanks”, replied Mike with a charming smile. “I'm meeting Mel for lunch.”

Julia nodded pleased by that. “Such a good boy. You could learn from him, Ricardo.”

“Wha...? I'm an awesome big brother”, huffed Rick offended. “I am the one showing Eddie the ropes around here! I'm his mentor.”

“Si, si. Eduardo. What about Enrique? You were not at his ballet performance!”, chided Julia.

“I was arresting a hostage taker!”, sputtered Rick defensively. “I would have been there if this guy hadn't decided to take a bank hostage! It was all hands on deck.”

Mike smiled fondly as he watched them leave and listened to their argument slowly fading out. Grabbing his own jacket, he got ready to leave too. He had agreed to meet his sister for lunch. Somehow that seemed trivial now, after last night. On his way out, he checked his phone. With his big sister, it wasn't rare to get canceled last minute. Melanie was a college professor and it often happened that a student needed counseling or had too many questions so her hours were full.

_Mel: Burgers at 12. Ur paying, ur the 1 with the sugar daddy_

Wiggling his nose, he typed his reply. _Haha. Funny. I'll be there in 5._

Considering she was a professor for English literature, it never ceased to amaze Mike that Mel could completely fuck all grammar and spelling when it came to texting. Since he already had his phone in hand, he dialed his fiance's number to check in with Matt.

“ _Did something happen? Are you alright?_ ”, asked Matt instantly, sounding concerned.

“No, sunshine, I'm good, I just wanted to see how you were doing”, assured Mike with a soft smile.

“ _Ah. Okay. Good. I'm... doing fine. Me and Tanya are doing fine. Aside from the yellow horse in the room. Literally. Sagittarius has been snooping around my office since we came here_ ”, sighed Matt.

“...That's kind of cute”, mused Mike, grinning. “My prince with his unicorn.”

“ _Ha. Ha. Ha_ ”, huffed Matt, though Mike could hear the genuine amusement. “ _You any conversations with Cancer? Or did your crab actually stay inside his... ah... glass-pearl?_ ”

“I think Cancer is the most... reasonable out of the three and he saw that I was always among people so far. He wouldn't come out then”, offered Mike thoughtfully. “Probably won't talk to him until I get home tonight. Speaking of, when do you think you'll get home, sunshine?”

“ _I genuinely can't tell yet, amore. I'm sorry. Tanya and I are going to meet up with Sonya for dinner and who knows how long that will take us. Don't wait up. Not that that's going to stop you_.”

“It's okay. I love you. Be safe”, hummed Mike gently.

“ _Always am. You too, amore_ ”, said Matt before hanging up.

Sighing softly, Mike put the phone away and crossed the street. Or at least that was what he had wanted to do. A car nearly hit him, followed by a second car, followed by a five-headed dragon the size of a house. Mike paused and blinked a couple of times. He turned to look after the dragon. Yup. Still there. Giant lizard with five heads. No, wait, those weren't called dragons. It was on the tip of Mike's tongue. Matt was obsessed with Greek mythology – it was the reason he had named his company _Chiron Training_ , because Chiron was apparently the greatest trainer of heroes there was. Something with an hy-... sounded like a hydrant.

Shaking his head, he took out his phone to take a picture. Matt would know what this was. And Cancer would be able to _explain_ it. Because something told Mike that this was directly related to the sudden appearance of colorful creatures telling them about heroes. Heroes usually had some figurative dragons to slay. The emphasis here being on 'figurative' though.

Mike yelped as the beast turned around and hit him square with its tail. Laying on the ground, he could only watch with utter mortification how heat and smoke rose from one of the beast's muzzles. Its mouth stood wide open as it prepared to burn Mike to a crisp. This was how he was going to go out. Not heroically on the job, not old and gray in Matt's arms and with their children and grandchildren surrounding them. No instead, on the street, burned alive by a hydrant-dragon.

“Watch out!”

The next second, someone landed right in front of Mike. The first thing Mike noticed was that the guy had a _really nice ass_. In his defense, the guy had landed right on front of Mike, Mike was laying on the ground and the other was kneeling. Skin-tight dark-red leather-pants also helped. The man stood up and lifted a sword up over his head. It had a curious grip, with what looked like dragon wings spreading out and a red gem at the center. The man was wearing a leather hoodie made of the same dark-red leather as his pants.

Mike gasped surprised when the sword caught fire and as the beast spit its fire at them, the sword just blocked it and seemingly absorbed the heat. Wow. _This_ felt far too much like he was the damsel in distress of an actual superhero movie. Something meowed next to him.

“Shoo”, said an annoyed little voice. “What are you still doing here, human? Shoo! Go to safety.”

“...A talking lion-cub”, muttered Mike, blinking. “A talking lion-cub _on fire_.”

“Yes. Very observant, human. Now shoo”, nodded the cute little lion.

It was adorable. Dark red and with a pink nose. His mane was made of pure flames. Wait. A lion. Like _the_ lion? Leo? The Zodiac sign? Mike's eyes wandered over to the guy dressed in red leather. A hero, bonded with an adorable Zodiac companion. That had to be it.

The lion nipped at Mike's heel and Mike finally complied. After all, he was right. This was dangerous and he was just a human. He didn't even know what kind of powers Cancer could grant him, much less how to wield them. He was... absolutely useless right now. He fixed the human hero with a concerned glance. He hoped the guy would be alright on his own.

“Scorpio! Get your butt moving! I could use some fire-extinguishing!”, called the young man out.

“Coming, Leo! Wo-hoo!”, yelped a female voice.

Mike, in the act of getting up, turned toward the voice. He stared in stunned silence as a girl just swung into the scene via a whip that she had curled around the street-lamp. She landed not quite gracefully next to Leo. Okay. She definitely looked out of this world.

Dark-purple hair and wearing the strangest outfit. Skin-tight white top with a frilly two-layered skirt in two different shades of purple, puffy sleeves and thigh-high white boots. She offered a bright smile as she wielded her whip, snapping it at the dragon-creature and tying its necks together.

Shaking his head, Mike finally decided to get going. He was a cop. He knew better than to be a bystander who in the end got pulled into the crossfire. Hurrying, he made his way across the street.

By the time he reached the pub, he was out of breath. Yet here, it was quiet. Blinking at how bizarre all of this was, he opened the _St. John's Pub_ 's door and entered. Inside was a whole, different world. It was calm, people were talking and laughing. No one was even aware of what was going on two blocks over. This was now his reality and he was just... overwhelmed by that.

“Well, you look traumatized. Didn't walk in on Rick and Lizzy having sex in a closet again?”

Mike shuddered at the reminder of _that_ traumatic experience of seeing his best friend and said best friend's girlfriend have sex in the supply closet that one time. Glaring, Mike sat down opposite his sister. Melanie smiled at him with a knowing twinkle in her eyes. His glare darkened.

“What? Something happened?”, teased Melanie, leaning back and taking the menu.

She pushed her glasses up on her nose and in the same motion brushed her long, black hair back over her shoulder. Mike sighed, contemplating what to say. What had happened outside was something that had _actually_ happened. At least Mike hoped it. Part of him still thought that maybe there had been a gas-leak at Tanya's and all three had experienced hallucinations...?

“Abuelo just reminded me that my wedding is going to be a public event”, grunted Mike.

“Of course did you not consider that”, chuckled Melanie amused.

“I mean, Mattie is going to pay to make sure this is as private as possible, but...”, drawled Mike.

“You're absolutely hopeless, brother”, sighed Melanie and shook her head.

“I kno—ow”, groaned Mike and let his forehead fall onto the table.

“Can you go and order me a vegetarian burger?”, requested Melanie. “And a small salad.”

“You do know you could order our food too, right?”, drawled Mike.

Melanie made a face and looked at the bar. Behind it, as nearly always, was Jessie St. John. Mike might be gay, but he could see that Jessie was an objectively attractive woman. She was athletic, not with bulky muscles but he had already seen her six-pack when she was wearing a midriff free shit, her arms strong too. Aside from that, she shared most of her features with her brother. The light-brown hair, the dark-green eyes, pale and freckled skin.

“You _are_ the most useless lesbian ever”, stated Mike pointedly as he got up to go to the bar.

Which was true. Melanie really was a useless lesbian. Whenever she was faced with a beautiful girl, her brain just farted. She would sputter, blush and stammer. Mike had his money down that his sister was going to die as an old and lonely cat-lady because of that. Melanie grumbled beneath her breath and tilted her head down, knowing very well that Mike was right.

“Hey, Jessie”, greeted Mike with a smile. “A vegetarian burger for my sis and a triple-bacon for me. A beer and a... mh... lemonade for me. Oh, and a small salad for Mel.”

Jessie scribbled it all down and raised one eyebrow. “Still can't talk to me, eh? Guess I'll be taking it as a compliment. But how long does she usually take before she can talk to pretty girls?”

“I have yet to see it happen”, drawled Mike with the most unimpressed look on his face.

“Girl's gotta get out and get herself a girlfriend”, stated Jessie seriously. “To get over all of this.”

“See, that's where the problem lays. Can't get a girlfriend if she can't talk to gorgeous women. And you, for some reason”, stated Mike with a teasing smirk.

Jessie flipped him the bird. “I'll spit in your lemonade.”

“Secret ingredient to the homemade lemonade, huh?”, snickered Mike and returned to the table.

Melanie looked absolutely miserable where she was sprawled out half on the table. “Sometimes, I question how we can be related. You _somehow_ managed to get engaged to a handsome billionaire and I can't even order a damn burger from a pretty girl...”

“Yeah. You're pathetic”, agreed Mike solemnly, getting kicked under the table.

The siblings fell into light banter as they waited for their burger. Mike was pleased by who brought their food, because it was Jamie, personally. Special treatment that never failed to make Mike smile. Jamie looked a little flushed, which was a good look on his fair skin.

“Hey. Matt not coming today?”, asked Jamie with a smile.

Mike had a dopey grin on his lips. He loved the way Jamie smiled, because the smile always lit his eyes up and made them look a brighter green than they actually were. Melanie kicked him under the table again and was giving him a pointed look that clearly said 'Now I see how we're related because you can be just as useless and pathetic as me', which... was legit.

“No. He's at work”, sighed Mike with the smallest pout.

“Poor you”, chuckled Jamie amused. “Well, guys. Enjoy your burgers.”

“Thanks. I love bacon”, hummed Mike, staring after Jamie's ass longingly when he walked away.

“...Honestly”, snorted Melanie and rolled her eyes before taking a huge bite from her burger.

“Shut up”, glowered Mike, sticking his tongue out at Melanie.

 

~*~

 

“There's a dragon loose.”

Matt blinked slowly and looked up from the paperwork he was going through. Tanya had stormed into his private office. She closed the door behind herself and rushed over to the giant TV. Matt's eyes widened as the news came on. There was a five-headed beast on screen.

“-first on scene was our own Isabel Tapia.”

Isabel was cut into the picture, microphone in hand and serious expression on her face. “What appeared to be a real-life dragon roared its way up fifth street today. And even though there were many injured, thankfully enough no one was seriously harmed. And thanks for that go to the two new self-proclaimed protectors of Los Angeles. The Lionhearts, as they called themselves.”

The footage in the background changed, still showing the five-headed dragon but this time around it was battling two oddly dressed humans. A girl in a purple skirt and a guy in red leather.

“...What in the name of god”, muttered Matt as he leaned back on his chair.

“Oh!”, exclaimed Sagittarius excitedly. “Leo and Scorpio!”

The unicorn had blatantly refused to return to her tiny glass-marble, instead thoroughly inspecting Matt's office and enjoying the view. He found himself not minding it as much as he probably should, but he sure was glad he had not chosen the glass-walls for his office.

“What?”, asked Tanya, looking at the yellow unicorn in confusion.

Sagittarius walked toward the screen and pointed with her horn at what appeared to be two small lions, one dark-red and one light-purple. Though something was off about both – well, aside from their color-scheme, quite clearly – the red lion had a mane that was seemingly on fire, while the purple lion had a... scorpion-tail of sorts. Frowning, Matt rubbed his face.

“Those are Scorpio and Leo”, stated Sagittarius. “That means those two humans must be their humans. Which is good. We found Scorpio and Leo already.”

“Well, we haven't really found them”, pointed Tanya out and raised both eyebrows. “They are vaguely _somewhere_ in Los Angeles. Which, not exactly a small town.”

Sagittarius glared at her. A glaring unicorn looked vaguely bizarre. Matt rubbed his face again.

“What about the hydra?”, asked Matt after another beat. “Where does that come from?”

Tilting her head, Sagittarius walked over to the desk. “You know there are twelve Zodiacs, yes?”

“Yes. We had that conversation yesterday”, confirmed Matt and leaned back.

“There are many constellations in the sky”, started Sagittarius carefully. “But it is the twelve of us who are... the... the chosen ones. The Zodiacs. The ones who are assigned special importance and meaning. The ones humans wish to associate themselves with. The ones humans tie their fate to. At times, the other constellations grow jealous of us and want more... More power and more attention. The hydra is a constellation and apparently, she is already on Earth.”

“Wait. How does that work?”, grunted Tanya, massaging her temples.

“We're manifestations of the constellations”, answered Sagittarius. “But we – the Zodiacs – are more powerful, because you humans assigned us the task of being Zodiacs. You tied more meaning to us than to the other constellations. And at times, that makes the minor constellations revolt.”

“...The hydra from the myths is actually the constellation hydra”, muttered Matt with a frown.

“The constellation existed first and manifested as the beast, thus earning her name as hydra. Both, the monster _and_ the constellation”, confirmed Sagittarius.

“So, does this mean this... hydra is... bonded to a human too?”, asked Tanya concerned.

“Yes. We draw our power from humans”, nodded Sagittarius. “We on our own have no powers. We can only gift our powers to a human. As you saw with Scorpio and Leo on the magic box. They bonded with humans and gave the humans powers and weapons. That is what Aquarius, Cancer and I wish to do with you and the grumpy human.”

“Mike. His name is Mike”, interjected Matt pointedly.

“I'm sorry, your human names are very hard to remember”, apologized Sagittarius.

“Su—ure, _Sagittarius_ ”, grunted Matt, one eyebrow cocked.

Sagittarius blinked and tilted her head, which looked ridiculously cute on the yellow unicorn. Matt had always wanted a unicorn. He had never pictured it to go down like this though. His eyes went back to the television where the news were still showing the fight that had gone down between the red-clad guy, the girl in the skirt and the five-headed hydra.

This was reality.

It was actually real. It was on the news. People could see it. It wasn't just in his head, as he had kind of hoped until now. But it was actual reality. Alien creatures, manifestations of the constellations. Some good, others not. He was meant to become a hero? Along with his fiance and his best friend. To battle against the... bad... constellations?

Shaking his head, Matt checked his phone, feeling like he needed some kind of contact with Mike. Mike had sent a couple messages while Matt had been distracted by work. The first of them was of the hydra and the red-clad guy standing in front of it, seemingly wielding fire itself.

_12:04 - Ran into a bit of trouble. Am okay, got saved by a talking lion on fire._

_12:04 - That just sounds absurd. Damn._

_12:06 - Lunch with Mel now._

_12:08 - Still can't talk to Jessie. What did I do to deserve such a loser sister...? Help me set her up._

_12:09 - Jessie will help with setting Mel up too._

_12:12 - Too bad Jess is straight. She'd be able to reign Mel in._

_12:23 - Mel's being weird._

_12:23 - I'm being weird too, so yeah._

_12:49 - Rick was at lunch with abuelita & abuelo. He has a stomachache now. :D_

_13:02 - I love you. See you tonight. Out on a case now._

Matt smiled gently at that and typed a reply of his own. _Setting her up sounds good. Let's round up the lesbians for Melanie. Saw the news. And the heroes. Call themselves Team Lionheart. This is crazy. I'll bring you up to speed tonight. Stay safe and text me when you get back to the station._

“Okay. No more talk about heroes and monsters. We have a meeting to prepare for”, declared Matt seriously, looking at Sagittarius and Tanya. “In this building, we actually work.”

“Such a strange human”, hummed Sagittarius and tilted her head. “I do not like the work-ethnic. My Apollo was far more fun than you are. Please be more fun.”

“All she does is complain about me”, grunted Matt, looking at Tanya and motioning at Sagittarius. “'I wanted a pretty girl as a princess!', 'You're not fun enough!', 'Why do you not have apples in your office?'. She complains about everything... Is Aquarius as bad?”

“No. She has been very sweet”, hummed Tanya with an amused smile.

“Well, she got a pretty pretty”, pouted Sagittarius.

Tanya blushed at the compliment and blinked slowly. “And how exactly did you end up with Matt? I mean, why not me, since you seem more inclined toward... not-Matt.”

“He was born under my sign”, replied Sagittarius. “You were born under Aquarius. That is the bond we Zodiacs need to tie ourselves to a human.”

Matt sighed once more and rubbed his face. Hopefully, he would be able to go through the day.

 

~*~

 

Mike was out like a candle by the time Matt got home and at least this time Mike had gone to bed. Though the lights were still on and he had his tablet on his chest, so Matt guessed his fiance had still attempted to wait for him. Smiling softly, Matt took the tablet and laid it on the nightstand.

“He has been researching constellations after we talked.”

Startling some, Matt turned to look at the dark-blue crab sitting on one of the pillows. “Hello, Cancer. So you already talked him through things...? I don't need to catch him up.”

“No. You might go to bed, Matteo”, confirmed Cancer. “But would you mind drawing me a bath in your tiny hovering water-box...? Michael fell asleep before he could.”

Smiling, Matt picked the crab up and went to the bathroom to fill one of the two sinks with lukewarm water for Cancer. Cancer sighed contently as he soaked in the water. Through the open door, Matt could see the yellow glow of Sagittarius leaving her glass-marble. On his way back to the bedroom, Matt checked on her and saw that the yellow unicorn was getting comfortable in the living room. After getting changed, Matt crawled into bed with his fiance.

“Sunshine...?”, mumbled Mike sleepily as Matt sneaked in beneath his arm.

“Sh. Sleep. Sleep, amore”, whispered Matt gently, pecking Mike's lips.

“Love you”, yawned Mike, hugging Matt closer.

“I love you too”, chuckled Matt fondly.

And before he fell asleep, Matt knew that whatever this new reality was, he could face it as long as he had Mike at his side, giving him the strength to handle whatever this was.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaah. We're getting more into it. I got to put some of the lore into it. Our boys are one step closer to understanding what the hell is going on. And no worries, Sagittarius doesn't really have anything against Matt, she just likes being pouty. ;D  
> Now, next chapter will have them actually checking out what kind of powers they have. And it will properly introduce Melanie Maguire next!


	5. Melanie Maguire

✪ || Melanya || ~★~ || Jamikatt || ~☆~ || Written in the Stars || ~☆~ || Jamikatt || ~★~ || Melanya || ✪

 

 

 

_Chapter 5: Melanie Maguire_

 

Mel sighed as she sprawled out on the table in front of her, pushing the papers she was grading further away from her. Planting her face forehead first on top of the horrendous essay she had just been reading. The headache she was spotting by now was dreadful.

“You want another coffee, or are you moving straight on to whiskey, prof?”

Grumbling, Melanie looked up at the waitress. “Coffee. I don't drink on the job.

Babara chuckled amused and shook her head before refilling the coffee. “You know, one of these days I will take personal offense by the fact that you can _talk_ to me, but are completely unable to form words when it's Jessie asking you for your order.”

“That's different”, grumbled Melanie and emptied her cup in one go. “You're not a girl.”

Raising both eyebrows, Babara pulled on her collar and looked into her shirt. “Well, those two could have really fooled me, eh?”

“No”, grumbled Melanie and rolled her eyes. “Sexless. Like... Like clay.”

“You know, this keeps getting worse and a sadistic part of me just wants to continue standing here and glaring judgmentally at you until you throw yourself at a knife”, pointed Babara out.

“Not like that, I mean...”, Melanie interrupted herself and groaned, burying her face in her hands.

“Yes, please, tell me how I'm just a lump of dirt”, nodded Babara.

Melanie glared up at her. “You're my _student_. None of my students have sexuality. You're not a _woman_ , not... not in the way I'd be looking at a potential partner. It doesn't matter whether my students are male, female or non-binary. You're not men or women, you're _students_. There's nothing about you that can or will or should be seen as attractive. You're clay to be formed, minds to be shaped, that's what you are. Not _dating options_.”

“...Fair enough, prof”, chuckled Babara fondly. “I'll get you another piece of pie, mh?”

“Thank yo—ou, you're my favorite sexless student”, groaned Melanie blissfully.

Melanie knew she was a useless lesbian. She knew that, around potential dating options, she was an absolute disaster. When a pretty girl talked to her, Melanie's brain went offline.

That hadn't always been the case though. There used to be a time, when she had been a teenager where she had been very popular. Hanging out with the pretty cheerleaders, she even used to date the head cheerleader. She had always been a giant nerd and diligent scholar and the popular kids liked that, she had tutored them all, single-handedly saving their school from losing a very important football game because she had tutored their goalie and team-captain so he wouldn't have to sit out the game. _Proper_ football. Not that American rubbish.

It had only started fifteen years ago, when Melanie had barely graduated high school and suddenly been a single-mother to two children, not knowing what to do or _how_ to do it.

Fifteen years ago, Morgan and Muireann Maguire had died in a car-crash, leaving their three children orphaned and without any family. There was no one. Neither of their parents had any siblings and the grandparents had been long gone too – cancer, a fire, old age for one, a war for the fourth. Melanie had officially been the oldest living Maguire at age eighteen.

Dreams of college had to be shelved for three jobs. Melanie tried to do everything alone. Friends suddenly seemed to scatter. Not all could be blamed; _they_ got to move on to college, leaving London and leaving her behind. She remained stuck, raising her younger siblings.

Many days, she still felt guilty that Michael, thirteen back then, had to man up too, had to watch their younger sister while Melanie had to go to work. That Michael had to shoulder school and that. She tried to do as much on her own as physically possible, but she was only human too.

And then, _finally_ , she did catch a break and could cram in college. Somehow. But people at college started whispering. Rumors. That she was a two-time single-mother. That she had gotten herself knocked up twice. No father around. What a slut. It _were_ the pretty girls that whispered the loudest. And somehow, Melanie hadn't been able to shake the connotation just yet. Pretty girls being nasty, or believing the rumors and sneering at her. Every girl she had managed to try and date being intimidated by Mel's status as a single-mom. So, over the years of college, Melanie had developed a certain _fear_ of beautiful women, based on past experience.

“There you go, prof. One cherry-pie”, chimed Babara as she put down a plate.

“Thank you”, sighed Melanie and heaved a sigh. “This is why I grade papers at the pub. So someone looks out for me and makes sure I eat and drink.”

“That is really very sad, prof”, pointed Babara out.

“Leave before I give you a bad grade on your essay, Miss Burkart”, warned Melanie with a glare.

Babara gasped and stuck her tongue out before walking off, making Melanie chuckle softly. Leaning back, Melanie started enjoying her pie. There wasn't a lot going on at the pub, it was around noon-time. Only the regulars who came for their lunch-breaks were in.

There were the two orphans sitting at the bar. Kids shouldn't be in a pub, but Jamie always gave them free lunch, because they were living on the streets. Even the cops at the pub turned a blind eye on the two homeless kids. There were only that many times they could turn the kids in to social services for Andy and Ally to run away _again_. They had their own arrangement with Jamie by now. Melanie knew Jamie and Jessie had a weakness for the orphans, she suspected they were orphans themselves too, though Mel had never managed to have an actual conversation with Jessie and Jamie always dodged the topic of parents with a dark glare. Melanie knew better than to prod.

Two businesswomen were in a corner of the bar, for privacy. One a sunny-blonde and the other a redhead. Both were too attractive for Melanie to ever talk to them personally.

Doctor Charles Jones, the ME, was shoving and entire sandwich into his mouth while holding a book with the other hand and reading. Melanie had met him a couple times before, through Mike's job. He was a large, muscular black man, who tended to intimidate stereotyping people at sight, even though Doctor Jones was a very brilliant and soft-spoken man.

“Babs, say has my brother been in today?”, called Melanie out with a frown.

Babara turned around to look at her. “Rickie's been by to grab two burgers to go. Seems they're busy with a case or something. I put a piece of pie in to lift their spirits.”

Melanie hummed in acknowledgment, nodding slowly. Honestly, she could not be prouder of her baby brother. Mike had worked hard to become a cop. As much of a hard time as she gave him, she was still insanely proud of him. And sometimes, it was hard for her to tread the line between teasing big sister and the surrogate mother she had become to him fifteen years ago.

 _You doing alright?? Babs says you're busy with a case_ , texted Melanie worried.

 _All fine. Observation. Boring stuff. Tell her thanks for the pie!_ , was the quick reply she got.

Smiling pleased, Melanie decided to turn her attention back to the essays she had to grade. It were moments like those that Melanie regretted being an English literature professor.

“Hey, English.”

Melanie scowled and looked up at Jessie, a blush rising to her cheeks. Jessie grinned knowingly.

“Call it a day and go home. You've been working through the night again, haven't you? It's barely one in the afternoon and you're on your fifth cup of coffee”, pointed Jessie out.

She looked really pretty in the red tank-top. It left Jessie's shoulders bare, showing off the freckles adoring her pale skin, as well as her arms, well-trained from years of lifting heavy things. Her brown hair fell in waves down onto her shoulders and there was a mischievous twinkle in her dark-green eyes, while her red-painted lips were pulled into a grin. The Irish woman was _gorgeous_.

“...Still not big on the talking, eh, English?”, teased Jessie with a grin. “Come on. Go home. Take a power-nap or something. You don't take enough breaks. If your brother'd be here, he'd be personally driving you home in his cop-car or somethin'.”

“Jessica! Stop sending our paying customers away!”, called Jamie out from the kitchen.

“How did he even...?”, muttered Jessie beneath her breath, shaking her head. “No, never mind. You. Go home. Sleep. It'll help your concentration. You literally noted down here that 'the intro is real pretty'. That ain't what's supposed to go on there.”

Melanie flushed at that. Perhaps Jessica was right. She really hadn't had enough sleep lately. Sighing, she started gathering up her papers, earning a pat on the back from the other woman.

“Atta, girl”, praised Jessica amused. “You can come back for dinner, mh?”

Melanie nodded gratefully as she stuffed everything into her backpack. A power-nap did sound good. And perhaps then the papers would also start making more _sense_. Though in her defense, it was hardly her fault that she had barely slept lately.

  


~*~

  


“I'm home”, called Melanie out and yawned.

Okay, Jessie had definitely been right. It was time for some napping. There was a soft cooing sound coming from her living room. Smiling faintly, Melanie walked into the living room where a large, green bull was standing. He was covered in moss, leaning over the plants on Melanie's windowsill to feed on them. That had been one of the indicators that the bull was actually _real_. Because her brother had been over and had noticed the state of her flowers.

Yes, there was a giant, green bull in Melanie's living room.

For the first couple of days, Melanie was sure she had had some kind of psychological melt-down. Burn-out reaching its peak, from how much Melanie always overworked herself. Some simple hallucinations, that was all. It'd be easily explained.

The bull stayed. He started light conversations. Very pleasant, really. Normally a rather quiet fella though, who only occasionally enjoyed some small talk.

Granted, he _had_ broken down the whole spiel of Zodiac protectors, physical manifestations of the constellations up in the sky, sent to protect Earth. Forming a symbiotic bond with humans to grand them great powers, magical powers, _godlike_ powers.

Taurus. The constellation of the great bull. The very constellation under which Melanie had been born. Which was why he had bonded with her, on the night of the star-shower.

Demeter.

Melanie was a professor of literature and she would have been damned if she hadn't looked into all the things Taurus told her. Many, if not all, polytheistic cultures had been built around incarnations of those Zodiac bonds. Among them, rather popularly, the Olympian gods.

And if Melanie gathered it correctly, Taurus represented a tight bond to Earth and nature, to plants.

“I told you you should rest more”, offered Taurus gently.

Melanie sighed and stretched before dumping her stuff on the already overcrowded living room table. She had been following the news ever since that attack from the Hydra – the _literal_ Hydra from mythology. Also a constellation, as it turned out.

The Hydra that had been stopped by Team Lionheart. Scorpio and Leo, two of the Zodiacs.

“Yeah. You were right. I guess I should start listening to my... literal horoscope”, chuckled Mel.

She flopped down on her couch and just as she closed her eyes, she saw Taurus grab the blanket at the end of the couch to pull it over her. He was such a considerate... companion? Honestly, Melanie wasn't really sure how to make heads or tails of any of this, but thankfully enough before she could continue on that train of thoughts, she fell asleep.

It felt like only five minutes later that she got torn out of her sleep by the ringing of the doorbell. Blinking blearily, she looked around to spot the clock – nearly seven PM. Oh, she had slept longer than anticipated. Such a wasted day. The ringing of the doorbell didn't stop.

Frowning, Melanie took her glasses off and rubbed her eyes. She was lucky she hadn't broken them in her sleep again. That had already happened three times in the past. One more and she'd never live that down... Mike _loved_ making fun of her for it.

Looking around, she noticed that Taurus was gone. The dark-green glass-marble with the Taurus-symbol enclosed inside gleamed in the last rays of the sunset. Pocketing it quickly, Melanie went to open the door, wondering briefly who was bothering her. Most likely her brother. Mike liked to fuss, or to come over and complain about Rick; that happened frequently too.

It was definitely not Mike.

It was... no one Melanie knew. Her eyes widened as she clumsily put her glasses back on.

Melanie made a slightly pathetic sound. The woman in front of her was absolutely breathtaking. She was tall – taller than Melanie by maybe half a head – and athletic in build, with her legs seemingly endless. She also really had quite the rack. Honestly, it was pretty hard not to look at them, they were very distracting. Honey-blonde hair was pulled back into a tight and very perfect bun, not a single hair out of place. Her eyes were piercing gray as they bore into Melanie's soul.

Whatever this angel was doing in front of Melanie's door, Mel knew she was going to make an absolute fool of herself by just gaping at the blonde and not saying a word.

“ _Hello_ ”, signed the blonde with her hands. ASL, huh. “ _My name is T-a-n-y-a. I'm M-a-t-t's assistant. He sent me on your brother's behalf with food._ ”

Melanie blinked a couple of times. Sure, she was fluent in ASL, had learned it out of curiosity and boredom some time ago, but for a long moment, she wasn't sure what she was supposed to do.

“ _Thank you_?”, offered Melanie after a beat. “ _I'm Mel_.” She showed the sign for glasses with an M, a very frustrating name she had earned herself a while ago. “ _Why are you here_?”

“ _Mike and Matt are busy with the wedding planning. They rarely find time to do that together anyway. But Mike was worried about you. We were at the pub together and Jessie said that you hadn't been by for dinner. Mike thought you were most likely working through dinner and would forget to eat anything_ ”, signed Tanya in explanation.

She motioned at the bag of take-out at her feet. Blushing, Melanie bent down to get the bag and then, reluctantly, motioned for the blonde to enter the apartment. Tanya made a curious sound as she looked around. Yeah, Melanie's apartment was kind of not very presentable these days.

“ _Finals. Lots of work_ ”, signed Melanie in explanation. “ _And... delivering food to the sister of your boss' fiance, that's part of the job, yes_?”

Tanya smiled amused and shook her head. “ _No. That's part of being Matt's best friend. He loves Mike a lot and he knows Mike cares about you. So since I had no other plans tonight, I offered to drop this off at your place so Matt and Mike can plan in peace_.”

Nodding slowly, Melanie smiled. “ _You're a good friend_.”

“ _I know. Maybe mention it to your brother-in-law next time he's contemplating raising the pay of his assistant_?”, asked Tanya jokingly, a grin on her lips.

Melanie laughed at that and nodded. “ _I'll do that_.”

“ _Anyway. I might not have plans, but I should be going anyway. Enjoy your meal. Mike ordered your favorite, or so he said, and Jessie put an extra piece of pie in_.”

“ _Thank you. Again_ ”, signed Melanie with a nod. “ _And... good night_.”

The blonde waved at her before leaving the apartment. It was only half an hour later, when Melanie was half-way into her veggie burger – which, the St. John's Pub really _did_ have the best veggie burgers in all of Los Angeles – that Mel realized she had kind of had a conversation with a beautiful girl. They hadn't used _words_ , but they had talked. She stared wide-eyed at the wall, mouth open.

“That does not look appetizing, please close your mouth”, requested Taurus as he materialized.

Blushing, Melanie closed her mouth. “Sorry. Just... startling realizations.”

Taurus grunted, clearly unsure what his human was talking about. Shaking her head, Melanie finished her burger. This was huge. She hadn't really spoken to a woman she found attractive in far too long. Somehow, that gave her a very sudden burst of confidence.

“Taurus”, started Melanie and straightened up. “Can we try this symbiosis?”

“Really?”, asked Taurus surprised. “You said you have no interest in 'heroing'.”

“Well, I don't. But, I suppose... I could... try it on. See what it looks like”, shrugged Melanie. “I mean, powers and all. Just... give it a... test-drive.”

“I do not know what that means. But we can bind ourselves”, nodded Taurus. “You define the shape of your weapon and your armor yourself.”

“Wait, those... are... from you?”, asked Melanie surprised. “That ridiculous frilly skirt Scorpio was wearing was _her own choice_? That's... well, yes, _ridiculous_.”

“You have to focus on what your clothes and your weapon are supposed to be”, confirmed Taurus. “It's very important the first time around. Once you summoned your outfit, it will stay that way every time we bond. So make sure you make a good choice. Better than frilly skirts.”

“That won't be hard”, grunted Melanie pointedly and nodded. “Okay. So, do I chant anything...?”

“...Why would you?”, asked Taurus confused. “You simply have to hold the marble and concentrate on me, on summoning the power within you. Close your eyes, if that helps.”

Nodding, Melanie closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She tried to focus on Taurus, on her connection to Earth. A warmth seemed to fill her and engulf her. The weight in her hand shifted, grew. When she opened her eyes, she was holding a golden lance, the green marble at the butt.

“Okay”, muttered Melanie and nodded slowly. “Okay. Let's check the outfit.”

Slowly, she went to her bedroom to stand in front of her full-length mirror. Skin-tight, dark-green, but with various instances of padded armor. A chest-plate – flat, of course, because nothing was more ridiculous than those special boob-plates from Hollywood – and armor on the legs and arms and shoulders. She was wearing a dark-green mask with the Taurus symbol on the forehead. Her long black hair was pulled back into a tight, practical braid. Good. Good. She could work with this. Well, she couldn't, because she couldn't fight, but the outfit was solid.

“Will we go out to find our comrades now?”, asked Taurus curiously.

“No. No, not today, no”, declined Melanie, shaking her head rapidly. “Just... a test-drive. We could maybe... stop a thief from taking a woman's purse tomorrow, or something.”

“That does not sound like it would be helpful for our mission”, argued Taurus.

“You need to walk before you can run”, disagreed Melanie.

“Why yes, that is... obvious but unrelated?”, grunted Taurus confused.

Melanie smiled and patted Taurus between the horns before she collapsed backward onto her bed. Closing her eyes, she tried to un-summon her armor. Which, apparently, worked. Well, at least she got the hang of that pretty quick!

Reaching out, she grabbed her phone to text her brother.

_Mel: Thanks for dinner, Mikey. IOU._

_Mike: Wow. You could take it?? Like? Talk to Tanya?_

_Mel: ...Yes. Didn't know Matt's assistant is deaf._

_Mike: ?? She's not??_

_Mel: She was using ASL? Mute then?_

_Mike: Nope. Filled with sarcasm and barbs mainly aimed at my heart. Wth??_

_Mel: Whatever. I'm going to bed now. Wasted the whole day anyway. Night, brother._

_Mike: Night sis. Watch out for yourself!_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Melanie's [character sheet can be found here](https://the-zodiacs-written-in-the-stars.tumblr.com/post/171914907977/taurus-melanie-maguire) and [superhero/civil design can be found here](https://the-zodiacs-written-in-the-stars.tumblr.com/post/171914781332/taurus-melanie-maguire-character-sheet-here).


	6. Mel & Tanya

 

✪ || Melanya || ~★~ || Jamikatt || ~☆~ || Written in the Stars || ~☆~ || Jamikatt || ~★~ || Melanya || ✪

 

 

 

_Chapter 6: Mel & Tanya_

 

Tanya was sitting at the bar, enjoying the homemade lemonade – Jamie made _such_ a good lemonade it was insane. Lemons, lime, elderflower and mints. It was probably the most refreshing thing she had ever drunk. Sighing softly, she poked at the mint leafs in her drink with her straw.

“Wanna talk about your day, girlfriend?”, asked Jessie with a smile.

“It was exhausting”, sighed Tanya and looked up at the bartender. “It's just... work. A lot of work.”

“I gotta have a talk with Matt? I will have you know, I _will_ have a talk with him”, warned Jessie.

Tanya smiled fondly and shook her head. Jessie was a wonderful person and one of the reasons Tanya had come to frequent the _St. John's Pub_. Though to be fair, both St. John siblings gave their regulars this feeling of home. They welcomed everyone and made them feel like they belong.

“Why the _hell_ did you talk to my sister in ASL?”

Both Jessie and Tanya turned toward a frowning Mike. The detective looked very confused. Jessie leaned in, very intrigued in where this was going, casually wiping down the counter.

“Why not?”, countered Tanya, equally confused. “You told me she's mute.”

“...I never... what...?”, grunted Mike, confusion visibly growing.

“You said she can't talk”, disagreed Tanya, one eyebrow raised.

There was a stretch of silence in which Mike just stared at her blankly. “What... No. What. I said she can't talk _to pretty girls_ . I didn't mean that she can't talk _at all_.”

“That makes no sense”, pointed Tanya out, a frown creasing her eyebrows.

“Mel is what others would call a useless lesbian. Only that she takes it to the extreme”, offered Jessie casually. “She is tongue-tied when a gorgeous woman talks to her. It's amusing.”

“That's ridiculous”, muttered Tanya and shook her head.

“I know”, sighed Mike. “But still. Wait. So... Why do you even speak ASL...?”

“My babushka, she went deaf... fifteen or so years ago? My whole family learned ASL.”

“Your _Russian_ grandma in _Russia_ went deaf so your _Russian_ family in _Russia_ learned _American_ Sign Language...?”, questioned Jessie, both eyebrows raised high.

“Yes, my grandmother who immigrated to Russia fifty years ago to be with my grandfather and never let go of her roots in _San Francisco_ and taught my father and me English, insisted that we learn _American_ Sign Language”, replied Tanya with a neutral look.

“Oh”, hummed Jessie and nodded. “Cool. So, Mike, why does your sister know ASL?”

“I don't know. She was bored one afternoon and decided to learn ASL after binge-watching _Switched at Birth_ because learning a new language is what that geek defines as a hobby”, shrugged Mike with an eye-roll.

“That is very impressive”, stated Tanya, eyebrows raised.

“Not when you consider she's fluent in like nine languages and can't talk to pret...”, started Jessie in a snarky voice before trailing off. “Wait. Wait, you talked to her? Like, had a conversation?”

“Yes?”, confirmed Tanya confused.

“That's _it_!”, exclaimed Mike excitedly, hitting the bar with his fist and startling the girls. “So, all we have to do is find a nice lesbian who's fluent in ASL for my sister and then it'll all work out.”

“I mean, it narrows down the pool, but...”, drawled Jessie unimpressed.

“Well, it's not like I know a lot of lesbians to begin with”, huffed Mike frustrated.

“I feel summoned. What are we talking about?”, asked Babs as she returned from serving beer.

“See. There she is, the only lesbian I know”, grunted Mike, vaguely motioning at Babs.

Blinking a couple of times, Babs hopped onto the bar, on Mike's other side. Tanya tilted her head and looked at the waitress. Babara was cute, in a dorky way. With the neon-green dyed hair put up into two pig-tails usually, lipstick and nail-polish in matching shades of magenta as always. She had very distracting boobs, if Tanya was being honest.

 

“And... why exactly isn't the only lesbian you know a match for your lesbian sister?”, asked Tanya curiously. “Does it have anything to do with the fact that lesbians do require more than just shared sexuality to work out as a relationship...?”

“Eh”, huffed Mike with a dismissive hand-gesture. “No. It's that Mel's a college professor and Babs is her student and that's a total no-go for Mel. So, Babs is out of the game. I mean, I had _hopes_ for Jessie, but... straight people exist.”

Babs opened her mouth to answer, but Jessie beat her to the punch. The barkeeper lifted a hand to silence Tanya before leaning forward against the bar, leveling Mike with an unimpressed look.

“Don't tell me you forgot sexuality isn't black and white. Straight and gay. We _literally_ got all the colors of the rainbow to play with, you know?”, chuckled Jessie. “Remember when I told you I'm not interested in women? Let me guess, you concluded I'm straight.”

“Well... something tells me you aren't. And that something is the judgmental look on your face”, offered Mike, sitting up with a frown.

“I'm not interested in women. But I'm also not interested in men”, replied Jessie with a shrug. “I identify as aroace. Aromantic and asexual. I aspire to become an old cat-lady.”

“Right. That's a thing. I saw it on that show Mattie loves watching so much”, muttered Mike embarrassed. “Never heard of it before. So I kinda... didn't... think about it.”

“Why am I not surprised that the gay archer who loves his men tall, dark and handsome watches _Shadowhunters_?”, mused Babs teasingly, kicking her legs back and forth. “I bet he has a total crush on Alec Lightwood. He does, right?”

“I'm not talking about that with you”, grumbled Mike frustrated.

“What did you girls do to him? He looks miserable.”

Tanya rolled her eyes just a little at how much Mike's face brightened up when Jamie poked his head out of the kitchen. His shoulder-long, light-brown hair was pulled up in a bun, some strands falling into his freckled face. Mike stared at him like he really wanted to brush the hair out of Jamie's face and then trace the freckles. Honestly, Mike and Matt were pretty _pathetic_. Jamie walked over to Mike and put a container with most likely two burgers and fries down.

“Thank you, Jamie. You're a life-saver”, sighed Mike. “I'm starving and me and Rick are gonna be busy throughout our break too probably...”

“Can't let our police-force starve”, chuckled Jamie, amusement in his dark eyes. “Make sure to take better care of yourself though.”

Mike just nodded, looking after Jamie as the cook disappeared back into his kitchen. “Anyway. I should get back to work. See you around, Tanya?”

“As always”, sighed Tanya, waving dismissively as Mike left the pub.

She raised both eyebrows as Jessie and Babs seemed to be zooming in on her. Jessie cocked her head in a nearly judgmental way and crossed her arms over her chest, while Babs grinned.

“So, why didn't you mention that you're _not straight_?”, asked Babs teasingly. “Mel not your type?”

“For one, I don't make a habit of flaunting my sexuality in everybody's face”, grunted Tanya unimpressed. “And for another, I will not be used by Mike to be set up with his sister. She seemed nice and all, but this is not the way I will find a partner.”

“Girl”, sighed Jessie, both eyebrows raised. “You're already fishing in _both_ ponds but you're still single. I don't think you _have_ a way to find a partner.”

“I will not be sassed about my lack of love-life by you, of all people”, huffed Tanya.

“Oh come o—on, it's like one of life's joys when you're ace”, pouted Jessie.

 

~*~

 

Melanie straightened her glasses as she put another paper down. She was getting good work done today. Maybe she'd even finish grading them all today. That would be nice.

“Hello, Melanie. Your hair looks nice today.”

...That would be it for her papers. Sighing, Melanie looked up at his brother's obsession. “James.”

James St. John was a handsome man, though Melanie attributed that to the fact that he looked a lot like his younger sister Jessica. Pale, freckled skin, lean body, soft, brown hair and dark, green eyes. They also both had that same smirk, filled with mischief and something foreboding. James grinned pleased at Melanie as he got comfortable on the seat opposite of hers.

“I was wondering if maybe you could do me just the smallest, tiniest favor, perhaps.”

“What is it?”, asked Melanie with a heavy sigh.

She liked James alright. He was kind, amusing and a brilliant cook. On top of it all, she knew what a huge crush Mikey and Matt both had on the guy. And there was one thing Mel had always been, supportive of her siblings and accepting of their love-interests.

“You know the kids who always come here for warm meals?”, asked James carefully, a serious look on his face. “Their names are Ally and Andy. They're orphans. Ran away from the same foster-home together. And, well, at first... it was just warm meals. Then a dry place to stay and... they kind of stopped leaving and the guest room kind of turned into an actual bedroom for them and now I'm fighting my way through the process of becoming a foster-parent. And, well, I figured it'd leave a better impression if I'd actually get the kids back into school.”

“That's... very admirable”, nodded Melanie surprised. “And... what kind of help do you need?”

“It's...”, started James before he sighed and rubbed his face. “Ally's fourteen. Andy's nine. They're... behind. They've been living on the streets for over a year now. And honestly, I'm... lost. I dropped out of high school for a reason. I ain't that kinda person. Neither is Jessie. You're a figure of authority, you're a teacher, you're _passionate_ about learning. I've heard you rant to Babs about it. I thought maybe... you could talk to them? From a different perspective.”

Melanie frowned. This was not exactly what an English literature professor did, but she could see the despair in Jamie's eyes. He was clearly frustrated and clearly trying his best. And it wasn't like she didn't understand where he was coming from.

“Okay. How about you introduce me to your young charges and I'll see if I can help?”, offered Mel.

Jamie offered a grateful smile before he got up and left for upstairs, where Jamie, Jessie and Babara were living. Moments later and he returned with two kids. The girl older, with long, tight curls and Polynesian features, skin a light shade of nougat and eyes guarded as she glared around the room. The boy next to her was younger than her, he was black, with short hair and what looked like lightning-bolts shaved into the side of his temples.

“Guys, this is Melanie. She, uh, offered to sit down with you and see if she can help with your school work”, introduced Jamie, one hand on the girl's back.

“Hello, ma'am”, greeted the boy, holding his hand out to shake hers.

“Such a polite young man”, smiled Melanie, biting her lip as she shook his head.

Jamie grinned brightly at that and shrugged. “I'll leave you to it.”

Ally glared wearily as she sat down opposite Melanie. She was wearing a hoodie such a pale shade of red that it matched her coral-necklace, her hands buried deep in the front-pocket of the hoodie. She was it like armor, Melanie was more than familiar with that. Compared to Ally, Andy seemed far more open and also eager, leaning forward curiously.

“So, the two of you don't want to go to school?”, asked Melanie.

Andy opened his mouth to answer, but a side-glance from Ally made him close his mouth. Melanie offered a wry smile and leaned back, pushing her glasses up as she watched them for a long moment. Andy had large, soft-brown eyes, making him look innocent and inquisitive.

“Okay, I have two theories here”, started Melanie slowly after a few minutes of watching the siblings and their body-language. “Wanna hear them?”

“Whatever”, muttered Ally dismissively.

Melanie hummed and tilted her head. “One is the fact that James isn't certified as a foster-parent yet. Going to school means settling it. It means growing comfortable here, to make _friends_. But if James won't become your foster-father after all, you'll have to run away again. And running away hurts more when you have someone to leave behind. Friends.”

Ally stared at her surprised, then wearily. “It's... not that we don't trust Jamie. But the system's rigged and I don't need to try if it's just gonna be a waste of time.”

“I get that”, replied Melanie and nodded.

“Right”, snorted Ally, slipping down further in her seat.

“I'm an orphan too, you know”, hummed Melanie casually, tilting her head. “But I was already eighteen when my parents died. But my younger brother, he was... he was about your age, Ally. He was thirteen back then. And our younger sister was ten. I had to fight to get to keep my siblings. Social workers didn't think an eighteen year old girl would be able to take care of two children, work and go to school. My younger siblings acted up, because they were afraid too. They were afraid to be taken away and they didn't know how to cope.”

Ally slowly seemed to relax a little bit. “So... how... did they cope?”

Melanie shrugged and tilted her head. “They had to trust me. I... One night, they found me crying in my room, because I really, really didn't know how I could do it. I thought I wouldn't be good enough for them, because they were acting out, that maybe it would be best for them if they got a second chance with someone who could be a parent for them. I was trying my best, but I was all alone and I didn't know how to do this because I had never done this before. That night, they realized that... that they were _afraid_ and _hurting_ , but... so was I. Just because I was older than them didn't know I really knew what I was doing.”

“And what did they do then?”, asked Andy, leaning forward so much on his chair, Melanie feared the boy would just fall off any moment. “Could they help you? Did it work out?”

That made Melanie sigh and shake her head. “Mikey, my brother, he... wanted to actually help. He thought that he _had_ to do something, so he suddenly decided he had to work beside school and help out. But that's not... The way you can help is by _listening_ to James. What he's saying about school is right. School is important and if he can show off that he has you enrolled in a school, integrated into the community, that he's taking care of you, it will make him look better. I understand that unlike me, James isn't alone in this. He has his sister and I believe Babara certainly helps out too, but he'll really rely on you two being cooperative. You _want_ to stay with James, right?”

Both children nodded at that, still looking at her like she held all the answers in the universe. Ally bit her lips and looked at Melanie wearily, like she was trying to sort her thoughts to ask a specific question. Melanie slowly took a drink from her tea, patiently waiting for Ally to be ready to ask whatever it was that was on her mind. They were good kids, both of them.

“What... happened with your siblings?”, asked Ally finally. “Did they get to stay with you?”

“They did”, confirmed Melanie with a small smile. “We... worked hard, together, to make it work.”

“And what do they do now?”, wanted Andy to know eagerly. “Your siblings?”

“Mikey is a cop”, replied Melanie, smile growing with pride. “He's a regular at the bar too. You surely have seen him around before. He looks really grumpy very often and has black hair like me.”

Andy's mouth formed an o as he nodded. “And your little sister?”

Melanie's face fell some as she blinked. “Mack... She's living in New York. Sadly, we don't have a lot of contact anymore, because she lives so far away, but I'm sure she's very happy with her life.”

Ally looked skeptical, like she didn't believe a word Melanie was saying. In the end, the girl allowed Melanie that little lie and just got up from her seat, motioning for her brother to follow.

“Come on, Andy. Let's see what Jamie's doing in the kitchen. I'm hungry”, hummed Ally.

“Oh, yes! Burger!”, demanded Andy excitedly and rushed past his sister.

Melanie smiled fondly but sadly as, for just a moment when she looked at the two children, she felt reminded of Michael and Mackenzie all those years ago. It's been a long journey for them and it was going to be a long journey for Ally and Andy, but considering everything Melanie knew about the Saint John siblings, she knew Ally and Andy would be fine with them.

 

~*~

 

Tanya wanted to get a head-start before going over things with Mike and Matt. They needed to meet to discuss what to do. They had superpowers, supposedly so, they had a kind of duty. What to do with it, that was what the three of them had to decide.

Tanya was so tempted. Aquarius had already shown her that this whole deal came with a _costume_. Only later did Aquarius tell her that she could or should have gone for armor. Instead, Tanya had gone for fashionable. A short, sleeveless dress made out of dragon-skin that actually looked like the scales of Aquarius – a matching shade of turquoise. It was tight and short, giving her more room to move. And it had a cape, because heroes had capes, okay? The high heels on the boots were most likely not the most effective things, but she hadn't walked in flats in at least ten years, so _that_ would be even more impractical for her personally, so there was that. At least the costume was heat-resistant because it was dragon-skin. No dragons had been harmed in the making of it though, since it was all magic. But at least that justified the cape some, because she could use it for hiding from fire and extreme heat. Generally, she loved the costume her subconsciousness had come up with.

The weapon that had come with it though...

A broad-sword with a zig-zagged blade. A vicious thing. Tanya did like how impactful it was, but she wasn't entirely sure about wielding it just yet. She could make it work, because she did know how to use a sword, at least the basics of it, it was just different from any sword she had ever worked with. She _had_ studied the blade, sword-dancing had been a hobby of hers as a teenager.

“Okay. Teach me about my powers”, requested Tanya seriously.

Aquarius tilted her head curiously. “You _do_ want to become a hero.”

“Yeah”, confirmed Tanya hesitantly. “I... suppose so. This power wasn't granted to us for us to stick our heads in the sand... And at the very least, I want to know what I'm capable of.”

Tilting her head into the other direction, Aquarius nodded pleased. That dragon was way too cute.

“There are twelve Zodiacs. They're assigned to the four elements, three Zodiacs hold powers of each element”, started Aquarius and stretched out, resting her chin and her front-paws on Tanya's lap to make her scratch Aquarius' head. “Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn are the signs of earth, Sagittarius, Leo and Aries are the signs of fire, Cancer, Pisces and Scorpio are the signs of water and Gemini, Libra and I are the signs of air.”

“Right. So, who was drunk when they decided that the literal _water_ -bearer should be assigned air?”, asked Tanya with a frown, scratching Aquarius behind the ear.

“I'm a water-dragon”, chimed Aquarius. “I spit water, not fire. And I _am_ a dragon. I fly. Air. So, it's a bit mixed. Guess that led to confusions. It's why one of your predecessors had such a weird myth around her birth. With the whole daughter of the sky – air – and the ocean – water. Which, I guess, works as me creating her to be a hero.”

“So, what powers _do_ I have?”, asked Tanya, frown deepening even more.

“Air”, hummed Aquarius, relaxing under Tanya's fingers and making purring sounds.

“What does that even mean?”, sighed Tanya and leaned back on her couch. “Fire, water, even earth, they all seem to have some nice possibilities. What can I do with air?”

“Many of your predecessors could fly”, offered Aquarius casually. “Air is _everywhere_. You can do so much with it. The only limit is your imagination. You can manipulate the molecules in the air. You can solidify it, or thin it out until it's hard to breath. You can manipulate the temperature of the air, really, there is a lot you can do with it. You just have to... try.”

“Okay. Let's maybe not start with flying”, suggested Tanya concerned. “I feel like it would not end well if I'd jump off a building right now. The rest sounds interesting enough to work with. How?”

“I don't know”, hummed Aquarius with a yawn, closing her eyes. “Concentrate. Just do it.”

“...That's not helpful”, sighed Tanya, the frown returning.

“How would you explain breathing to someone else?”, shrugged Aquarius. “It's that. It's... It's just something you can _do_. Something I have always been able to do. It's... Just do it.”

It would be easier to be irritated if Aquarius didn't look this adorable when pouting. Sighing, Tanya continued scratching Aquarius behind the ears until the dragon fell asleep in her lap. Okay. Just do it. It couldn't be _that_ hard. She just had to... do it. Somehow.

Maybe if she approached it like a mime? Solidifying air by forming it. Closing her eyes, Tanya focused on visualizing it. Visualizing firm, solid glass beneath her fingers, instead of air. She pressed the flat of her hand against nothing and kept concentrating, until... until it _was_ solid. Her eyes snapped open as she stared stunned at the air. There was nothing _visible_ , but the air still felt like it had turned into solid glass. Removing her hand, Tanya kept staring. Tentatively, she knocked against the air – and it actually worked. It was still solid. Okay. She _could_ work with this.

And fighting supervillains with actual superpowers seemed far more realistic than simply with a sword. Maybe they could do that. She wasn't sure of it just yet, because the thought was scary, but... there were villains, literal villains, hurting innocent people. And the three of them belonged to the twelve only people on the _planet_ who could do something. They _had_ to.

 

~*~

 

“Okay. This feels utterly ridiculous, Taurus”, sighed Melanie softly.

“It only feels ridiculous because you had to go to your brother's place to find a _big enough_ _plant_ ”, pointed Taurus out.

 

Melanie grumbled, her cheeks flushing. She wasn't good with plants. Apparently, that was now going to change, thanks to her Zodiac and his powers. Or at least, Taurus said so. Melanie wasn't quite sure – which was why they had gone to Mike and Matt's. Melanie knew the couple weren't home, they would be gone the entire weekend, staying at Matt's parents'. And Melanie had a key to their gorgeous Victorian-style house. She loved that house _a lot_. Two stories, an attic, a basement, a backyard and winter garden. Sure, Matt was rich, it figured he wouldn't want to live in a shack.

She often came to their house, even when they weren't home. Neither of them had a problem with it, Matt had an actual library and it had proven very useful for work. Also, Melanie just felt happy when she was surrounded by books, so there was that.

There was the master bedroom, the office space and two more bedrooms on the first floor, aside from the library. One of those bedrooms belonged to Matt's little sister. She regularly came to stay for a weekend in Los Angeles with her big brother, or spent the holidays, so Matt and Mike had simply converted one room to be all hers. And she _loved_ it. The other bedroom was a guestroom, where Melanie found herself staying regularly too. Sometimes because she worked too long in their library and forgot about time, other times she would stay over after a movie night or something.

But what Melanie was seeking out was on the first floor. Oh, Melanie really did love this house. A sitting room in the center of the first floor, connected to the guest bathroom, the kitchen, dining room, living room – and the winter garden. Which was exactly why she was there today.

“Okay. Tell me what to do”, prompted Melanie with a frown as they reached the winter garden.

It was a long room, with window-walls all around. Fresh beautiful flowers and plants all over, as well as four deckchairs. The sun perfectly fell into the winter garden. Matt liked laying here to read, Melanie knew that. She had spent hours laying with him, enjoying the sun on her face and the book in her hand. She was getting along really well with her future brother-in-law. Something she was eternally grateful for, because the idea of _not_ getting along with the person her brother loved...? Horrible to imagine. Coming here as she pleased, spending time with them both.

Taurus was standing awkwardly between two small palms, ducking beneath them. He wasn't tall, reaching just above Melanie's hips. His fur was a soft mossy-green and had the soft texture of moss too. His horns were massive and curved, a lush, emerald green just like his eyes and the symbol on his forehead – the symbol of Taurus. He ducked his head further, nudging a potted plant.

“Take the leaves between your hands. Close your eyes and focus”, ordered Taurus.

“Focus on... what?”, asked Melanie with a frown, caressing the plant's leaf.

“The plant. The _life_ inside”, suggested Taurus. “Feel it. Like... another presence. Like another _person_ in here. You can talk to it. Control it. Make it grow.”

Melanie frowned, clearly annoyed and frustrated. How could she make something grow? By... imagining it? She had never been a very visual person, she was better with words.

“The thick, green leaf, a soft color because it was still so young, it was strong. Strong enough to grow”, muttered Melanie beneath her breath, imagining it. “It could grow stronger, bigger. It-”

She startled and opened her eyes to stare at the plant. The thick leaf had grown, was now nearly twice its size. Okay. That was interesting. Tilting her head, Melanie tried to influence the plant – and the leaf turned into the direction Melanie wanted it to. Smiling softly, Melanie caressed the leaf. It felt... happy? Why... How could she feel a plant? Oh, this wasn't good. She was already vegetarian, if she could now communicate with plants, what was left to _eat_...?

“This is amazing, Taurus”, whispered Melanie. “With this and the suit and the additional strength that you can give me... I... I _could_ actually do something. Be... a _hero_...?”

“Of course. That is precisely what I have been saying since the beginning”, confirmed Taurus.

The two of them talked animatedly with each other, Melanie being lost in all the possibilities of her powers, until suddenly, she had a steak-knife to the throat. Okay, she definitely needed better reflexes if she wanted to be a hero. With wide, frightened eyes did Melanie slowly turn around to face her attacker. Tanya Tarasova stared at her threateningly until recognition set in. Her eyes widened in surprise before the blonde backed off and essentially dropped the knife.

“Ni figa cebe!”, cussed Tanya as she slowly calmed down. [trans, Russian: _holy shit_ ]

Melanie just stared at her in surprise. Tanya took a deep breath, just to freeze and stare wide-eyed... at the large, green bull. Oh. Melanie gulped. This was super not going according to plans.

“That... you are a...”, whispered Tanya in disbelief.

She ran her fingers through her sunny-blonde hair, disheveling it a little. It was so perfect and exactly in place, but some strands falling out of the bun also looked really good. Melanie blushed.

“Taurus!”

Melanie _jumped_. The sudden high-pitched female voice startled her. So did the bright, turquoise light. It was what happened next that _nearly_ made Melanie faint. A dragon. A real-life dragon. Sitting upright, it reached easily up to her waist. And it was _utterly adorable_. With dots all over, shades of turquoise and two zigzag lines on her forehead. The dragon yelped happily and jumped on top of Taurus, hugging the green bull. Taurus tilted his head, nudging the dragon.

“Aquarius. What a nice surprise”, hummed Taurus gently.

“Wait. Aquarius. Like. The Zodiac?”, blurted Melanie out, eyes large.

She turned to look at Tanya in surprise, though the blonde was just staring at the bull. “Taurus. Wait. That means... you have a Zodiac companion too? Oh, that explains a to. Mike's been complaining that you've been behaving 'weird'. It's because you have a secret.”

“Well, you have a _dragon_!”, exclaimed Melanie, pointing at Aquarius. “An adorable dragon, but a dragon! H—How...”

“Oh, I like her. She said I'm adorable”, declared Aquarius pleased.

Tanya just shook her head. “Matt and Mike are not going to believe it...”

“We can't tell them!”, exclaimed Melanie. “I can't drag my baby brother into this!”

“I'm sorry, but it's kind of too late. The snarky, blue crab dragged him into it”, chuckled Tanya, eyes twinkling. “Mike and Matt have companions too.”

“...Is that why Mike has been so distracted lately?”, whispered Melanie in realization.

“Yes”, confirmed Tanya, an amused smile on her lips. “This is going to be good. But wait, what _are_ you doing here...? Matt and Mike are visiting Matt's family.”

“I know. I... uh... I have Earth-powers and... wanted to test them, but I don't own any plants”, admitted Melanie a little embarrassed, cheeks heating up.

“You don't own a single plant?”, asked Tanya, laughing softly.

“Oh, shut up”, grumbled Melanie flustered. “What are _you_ doing here?”

“I'm Matt's assistant. I often come here, to drop off documents from work or get stuff he leaves here for me”, replied Tanya with a shrug. “He called me, told me he signed some important stuff before him and Mike left and that it was in the office.”

Melanie nodded and sat down on one of the chairs. Tanya sat down next to her, looking mainly amused. This was a lot to digest. She just hoped she'd have it digested by the time her brother returned home from his weekend trip. And in all the excitement, she didn't even really register that she had just spoken to a beautiful woman without stumbling over her own words...

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ally and Andy's character sheet [can be found here](https://the-zodiacs-written-in-the-stars.tumblr.com/post/172891941787/name-alaula-pele-ahuura-nickname-ally-age-14).
> 
> Melanie is a lot of fun to write. Which is peculiar, because originally intended, she was supposed to be a bit stuck up and all.
> 
> Oh and Jessie being asexual was a real wild ride. She's literally been through all the sexualities at this point. Originally, I meant for her to be promiscuous and straight, then a lesbian, then bisexual, but somehow, in this universe, aroace fits her best.


	7. The Unicorn Princess Squad

✪ || Melanya || ~★~ || Jamikatt || ~☆~ || Written in the Stars || ~☆~ || Jamikatt || ~★~ || Melanya || ✪

 

 

_Chapter 7: The Unicorn Princess Squad_

 

By the time Tanya and Melanie finished talking about their superpowers and the potential of actually becoming heroes, the things that Scorpio and Leo have been achieving so far and what it could be like if they were to form their own team, it was long dark and late at night. Both frowned as they looked out the window to see the darkness. Sighing, Tanya tucked her hair behind her ear, pacing in the kitchen and tilting her head.

“Well, it's getting late. I think I'm going to stay”, sighed Tanya.

“Yeah. That sounds like a good idea. I live not exactly around the corner”, agreed Melanie.

Tanya smiled and the two headed upstairs. Their smiles wavered a little when both headed to the same bedroom though and when Melanie grabbed the handle the same moment Tanya did, they froze and stared at each other.

“This is usually my room”, stated Tanya with a frown. “I keep _clothes_ here.”

“So do I”, countered Melanie, pushing her glasses up.

“Well. I guess that... does make sense since this is their only guest room”, sighed Tanya. “Wonderful. Now. What do we do? Toss a coin on who gets the bed?”

Melanie blushed as they both entered the room. She went for the drawer where she kept her clothes, earning a huff from Tanya who could not understand why someone would keep their clothes in a drawer and not in the actual closet. Shaking her head, she headed to said closet to get her own nightgown out of it.

“No. You... You take the guest-bed. I'll just crash in Mike and Matt's room”, assured Melanie.

“...Really?”, asked Tanya doubtful. “I mean, who knows... when they last washed the sheets.”

There was a mildly horrified expression on Melanie's face at the idea of her brother having sex in that bed. “On second thought, maybe I'll just sleep in Marcy's room.”

“Have fun in the unicorn princess' place”, chuckled Tanya fondly. “And good night.”

“Good night”, nodded Melanie, hugging her clothes tightly.

She knew that Matt's little sister had a tiny obsession with unicorns. Everybody who ever met Marcella di Girasole knew that the girl was obsessed with unicorns. So of course was her entire room dedicated to the horned horses too. Melanie cringed a little as she entered the teen's bedroom. Orange walls, a four poster princess bed with _My Little Pony_ bed-sheets and a large movie-poster of _The Last Unicorn_ hanging right over the bed. Not to forget the countless unicorn figurines. Plastic toys as well as ceramic figurines. It was a tiny bit creepy, but it'd do for the night.

Getting changed and ready for bed, Melanie collapsed on top of the sheets, staring up at the smiling face of Amalthea in both human form and unicorn form. When her siblings had still been small, they had watched that movie a lot, because Mackenzie used to love it so much.

Folding one arm behind her head and the other on her stomach, Melanie just stared up, trying to sort her thoughts. She wasn't in this alone anymore. _Her brother_ and Matt and Tanya, they too had superpowers. They could be a team and... all of this was far less scary thinking there was a team.

“Meow!”

Startled, Melanie turned to look at Ace. The black Norwegian Forest Cat made his way over toward the bed and... oh. Right. She had _actually_ been asked by Mike to come and feed Ace on her way home, because they were living relatively close to the university. With everything on her mind, she had just kind of said yes and forgotten about it. Wincing, she got out of the bed and grabbed the glaring tomcat, lifting him up.

“Sorry, Ace. I'll go and get you your food now, mh?”, offered Mel.

On her way downstairs, she saw Taurus sleeping in the sitting room, legs folded beneath himself, eyes closed. He could retreat to the marble for sleep, but he actually preferred to be outside. After all, it had been a while since he had last been on Earth like this. Smiling at her sleeping Zodiac, Mel took a sharp left right into the kitchen, just to yelp in surprise.

“Goodness, don't scream like that!”, gasped Tanya, grasping her heart. “You startled me.”

“I startled _you_? You're sitting on the kitchen-counter in the dark!”, exclaimed Mel disturbed.

Ace had jumped off her arm and hissed when she had yelped into his ear. Shaking her head, Melanie went to the fridge to get out the cat-food. Looking over her shoulder, she saw that Tanya was eating ice-cream. The blonde was wearing a thin turquoise nightgown with a floral embroidery along the thin straps and v-neck. Blushing, Melanie turned away again.

“Right. The demon-cat. Totally forgot about him”, grunted Tanya as she watched Ace.

“He's not a demon. My brother is just over-dramatic”, chuckled Melanie.

“So, you can't sleep either?”, asked Tanya, kicking her legs back and forth.

“Too much on my mind”, sighed Melanie and shook her head. “You?”

“I've actually been wrecking my brain, wondering how we've never met”, admitted Tanya, tilting her head. “I mean, Matt and Mike have been dating for four years now.”

“...Mh. True”, grunted Melanie with a frown. “Mike never celebrates his birthdays. But I do think I've seen you, at a couple of Matt's galas that Mike dragged me along to...”

“Right”, nodded Tanya, eyebrows furrowed. “I... actually, I think I tried talking to you. But, you didn't answer and I kind of gave up on that. And with enough other people around that _did_ talk to me... Huh. You're a strange one, Melanie Maguire.”

“I know. I just have a hard time ta--”, started Melanie before pausing. “I _normally_ have a hard time talking to pretty women. How are we having this conversation? You were ambushing me yesterday and I just... So... You are an anomaly, Miss Tarasova.”

“Why thank you”, grinned Tanya amused, tilting her head. “Ice-cream?”

Melanie hesitated for a moment, but it was caramel ice-cream. Opening one of the drawers, she got herself a spoon and then hopped onto the counter next to Tanya, while Ace ate his late dinner, tail up high.

“So, why can't you sleep?”, asked Tanya when they were half-way into the container of ice-cream. “I mean, _what_ is on your mind? Maybe I can help out?”

“Everything”, offered Melanie with a frown. “Superpowers? Super _villains_? And...”

“A—And?”, echoed Tanya curiously. “There has to be something important after that 'and'?”

“Just... Just...”, started Melanie and heaved a sigh, tucker her own hair behind her ear. “I am not good with secrets. It's been eating me up not telling Mike. I'm so glad I'll be able to talk to him about this now, but... I... I'm still lying to my best friend and... and... I've _never_ kept a secret from him before. We've been best friends since high school and... now I'm keeping this big secret from him. I just... Have you ever had a huge secret from your best friend?”

Melanie looked at Tanya downright desperately as she dug her spoon into the ice-cream. Tanya sighed, slightly uncomfortable, and turned to watch the kitten.

“Actually... there... is something that I haven't told Matt yet”, admitted Tanya.

“Oh”, grunted Melanie surprised. “Uhm... Do you, I mean-”

“I can tell you”, shrugged Tanya, tilting her head. “You certainly know about the guy both Matt and Mike are crushing on, right? Jamie, from the pub? Because that's... public knowledge, isn't it?”

“It is”, confirmed Melanie with a nod and a curious look.

“He's my ex”, stated Tanya, earning her a wide-eyed look from Melanie. “It's not like it was some... grand romance and true love. We never even... used _that_ word. We were dating for a couple of months, back when I first came to the US eight years ago. I was... lonely and alone and frustrated and he was very... kind and understanding when I started coming to the pub and then we, you know. We just... I don't know how to tell them. Mike and Matt, they put Jamie on that... pedestal, like he is some pure, untouched, perfect, precious thing, you know? And telling them that I did in fact touch him. And so did a lot of other people. I just... I just don't know _how_.”

With both eyebrows raised high did Melanie nod slowly. “Ye—eah. You make a great point. Mikey is still in that celebrity state of crushing...”

“The what now?”, asked Tanya confused.

“You know”, huffed Melanie, gesturing vaguely. “When you have a crush on someone and just see this perfect persona. Like they're a celebrity and you only fall for the pretty cover-picture, not knowing the actual person behind the persona.”

“O—Oh. Yes”, nodded Tanya. “Definitely that. It's ridiculous. I mean, Jamie is a good person, yes, but he is not some untouchable pure bae or something.”

“They'll realize that too”, assured Melanie dismissively. “I mean, Mike was the same when he first fell in love with Matt, like Matt had some kind of halo or something. They'd just... you know... have to talk to Jamie and bother actually getting to know him instead of just flirting and pining.”

Tanya hummed and nodded pleased by that. “You know what, I like you, Melanie. You make a lot of sense. Are you _sure_ you're related to Michael? Because he very often _does not_.”

At that, Melanie laughed and nudged her. “Hey, that's my dumb baby brother you're talking about and I'm the only one allowed to call him out on that!”

 

~*~

 

Matt sat curled together on his seat, staring out of the window. He was so tired. He _hated_ the long drive. Going to Cathedral City to see his family was _good_. He loved them. He loved his parents and his little sister and with how hard he worked all the time, he enjoyed this monthly weekend trip to see them. It was probably stupid that he enjoyed being a little boy again – getting pampered by his mom, helping his father out in the garden and around the house because 'just because you're a gazillionaire does not mean you can avoid manual labor, young man'. It was nice, _grounding_.

For a guy who could literally live in an actual castle with two dozen servants, it was nice coming home to his parents. Well, it wasn't like Matt lived like a spoiled billionaire. He owned a Victorian-style house and had no servants, aside from the cleaning lady who came over once a week.

“You've been awfully quiet, babe”, whispered Matt as he turned to look at the driver's seat.

Mike grunted in acknowledgment. “Mh...? I've just... You know. Seeing your parents always... makes me miss mine, I guess. But it also... calmed me down a little about the wedding.”

Sighing, Matt reached a hand out to rest on Mike's knee, squeezing. Often, Matt wished he could have met Morgan and Muireann. Mike didn't talk about them a lot, but whenever Matt thought of their wedding, he missed that Mike wouldn't get to have his parents with him.

“So, you're still nervous about the media?”, asked Matt with a small half-grin.

“I mean, I forgot that I'm marrying one of biggest celebrities of the country. Hot billionaire CEO”, huffed Mike, motioning vaguely at Matt with one hand. “We've been so boring that paparazzi haven't really been following us around for years. I kind of forgot.”

“The restraining orders you got because people have been getting into the way of your very important job had helped too”, offered Matt with a small grin.

“I just... our wedding will be all over the news”, sighed Mike, rubbing his face with one hand.

“And you will be so handsome”, added Matt, eyes sparkling. “You're adorable when you worry.”

“Shut up”, grumbled Mike, pouting and glowering.

“Absolutely adorable”, smirked Matt, adjusting a little.

Silence settled between them for a little while. The drive back to Los Angeles always took hours. It was already getting late. Matt couldn't wait to get back home to their _bed_ and their kitten. He really hoped _someone_ remembered to feed Ace. Melanie had a bit of a track-record of forgetting things when she was in the middle of working. Then again, Ace knew how to get what he wanted.

“So... have you given the whole... superhero-thing... another thought?”, wanted Mike to know.

“Mh... I don't know. I mean. It is the _right thing_ to do. But it's also... dangerous”, sighed Matt, rubbing his forehead. “We'd have to train before we can... It's too dangerous.”

“I know it's-”, started Mike, just to be interrupted by something large crashing into them.

Matt was dizzy when he opened his eyes the next time. Something smelt of fire. There were screams coming from everywhere and when things came back into focus. He gulped dryly as he saw the panicked people running around and the giant yellow snake whose head alone was the size of a car. Unbuckling his seat-belt, Matt hurried to got out of his seat.

“Mike! Mike come on!”, exclaimed Matt. “Let's get out of the car. We gotta—Mike!”

“Mh...?”, huffed Mike, holding his bleeding forehead.

“Come on. There's a... monster attack, please come on!”, screamed Matt. “Come!”

When they were outside, Matt gasped at the extend of the destruction. Three cars were totaled, the giant snake had its body wrapped around a fourth car. Its poisonous teeth were as long as a human being. Matt was standing there, absolutely terrified, unable to move.

“Matt, we gotta get out of the way”, grunted Mike, pulling on Matt's hand.

The snake lashed out with its tail, knocking Mike out. Still, Matt found himself unable to move. He just stared in absolute horror at the giant snake. Before it could hit him, someone had grabbed him around the waist and carried him off. Staring in surprise, Matt took in his savior. Clad in dark-red leather, with odd but strangely cute fur-lining. A red mask covered half his face, with the symbol of Leo on his forehead. His eyes were a dark, sparkling green and... oddly familiar.

“Hey there, handsome. You should _definitely_ be more careful”, laughed Leo.

Matt nodded jerkily as he was being put down next to Mike. “Thank... Thank you.”

“No worries. Just, take your boyfriend and get out of here”, ordered the red-clad superhero.

The next moment and he was out again, joining his partner in the fight. Scorpio had her whip through the snake's mouth, using it like a reign to control the mighty beast. Matt shook himself.

“Sunshine? Hey? You alright?”, asked Mike lowly, gently cupping Matt's cheek. “Are you alright?”

“No”, muttered Matt and shook his head. “No, I... I just... stood there. I couldn't... move...”

“Hey”, whispered Mike, grasping Matt's face and looking at him intensely. “It's okay, babe.”

But was it? Not really. Matteo di Girasole had _always_ been a diligent and stubborn person.

If there was something that didn't feel right, then Matt did everything in his powers to change it. _Especially_ when there was something in his powers to change it. That was just who he was.

Back during high school days, when one of his classmates was being picked on, he would defend them and fight the bullies. When his dad's sports-equipment shop didn't go so well, Matt did his best to improve it, he worked so hard and developed so much revolutionary equipment that he had literally paved his way into the top five of the Forbes list (it had been oddly satisfying to kick Zuckerberg out of the top five). He was a _doer_ , a _solver_.

He had spent _millions_ on buying the Washington Redskins and another couple millions on greasing the right hands to convince even the racist assholes that the name-change was the right thing to do. That it sent a positive message and brought loads of money, since all the fans would buy new merch then. All to get that resigned, defeated look out of his grandfather's eyes, who kept saying the rich white folks would never change. Well. That was why someone had to come and play in the all-white all-boys club. It was probably why he held such special respect for Sonia Gold; the two of them played in a league that was very clearly dominated by something they both were not.

And if he could achieve _that_ , after years and years of protests and trying to fight for a name-change, then how could he possibly just resign and give up before even trying this? He had super-powers. If he could achieve all of that without super-powers, how could he just stand down now?

No. Matteo di Girasole was going to become a superhero.

 

~*~

 

Mike sighed as he stretched out. His shoulder hurt and he had a couple band-aids on. Matt's hair was messy, the cut over his eyebrow had a band-aid on it too. They had avoided going to a hospital, because really now, there had been far more people seriously injured. Even though Leo and Scorpio had taken care of everything rather quick and effectively. Days like those, Mike was really happy to have a filthy rich husband. Matt had _bought_ them a new car and had it directly delivered to the roadside and only an hour later and the two of them were finally home.

Somehow, there had not been room to actually celebrate that Matt agreed to becoming superheroes. After all, they had literally just been attacked by a monster. It had definitely put things into perspective for Mike too. He had known it would be dangerous, but somehow, it was... different. A different danger than Mike's day-job. Sighing, he unlocked their front-door.

Both Mike and Matt paused as they went through the hall and entered the sitting room. Mike blinked slowly before he grabbed Matt by the upper arm and turned around.

“Babe. We gotta get to a hospital after all. I'm having hallucinations. Might be a concussion after all”, grunted Mike, voice low. “I see... green... bulls... well, one bull, but... it's eating the orchids.”

“I see it too”, whispered Matt with a frown. “And it's eating the orchid mamma gave us.”

The large green bull turned toward them and tilted its head. It was actually rather pretty. Covered in moss, with the horns and eyes looking like actual emeralds. Matt tilted his head too and stepped up to the green bull. If it wasn't a hallucination, then... His eyes widened when he spotted the dark-green symbol on the bull's head. The symbol of Taurus – _the_ bull.

“Oh boy”, muttered Matt. “Mike, I think we're having an unexpected visitor.”

“So the thing is real...?”, asked Mike with a doubtful frown, stepping up to his fiance.

Taurus smiled indulgently at them. “Hello. You are Melanie's brother.”

“No”, grunted Mike and shook his head wildly. “Oh no. Not my sister. No. You don't-”

Laughter interrupted them. The couple turned to face the stairs, watching how Melanie and Tanya ascended from upstairs, taking to each other. Okay, this was definitely taking an odd turn.

“What is going on here?”, asked Matt, looking at his best friend expectantly.

“Oh. So, funny thing happened this weekend”, started Tanya with a smile. “I just came over to pick up the files you left for me and walked in on Mel here performing some plant-magic. With her Zodiac companion, who by the way, really sweet bull.”

Taurus cooed at that, smiling at her as he approached them. Matt took a deep breath and went to sit on the couch. This _was_ a sitting room, after all. And never before had Matt been this grateful they had this. Mike sighed and went to join his fiance. This was a little much to take in. His big sister also had a Zodiac companion...? That meant... That meant...

“Will you _ever_ let me do something on my own, hovering big sister?”, huffed Mike with a glare.

“Dork”, snickered Mel and shook her head. “I let you go to the police academy on your own!”

Mike huffed again and glared at his older sister. “So... what does that mean? And what did Tanya mean by plant-magic...?”

Mel lifted one finger in excitement before running over to one of the potted plants, carrying it over to hand it to her brother. Mike looked a little confused as he held the plant. With a concentrated look on her face did Mel motion at the plant, rolling her hands around a little. Slowly, the plant started growing, reaching out for Melanie before curling around her wrist. Mike stared stunned.

“Magic”, muttered Mike.

“Yes. And you _knew that_ ”, grunted Cancer pointedly as the blue crab appeared from his marble.

“You have magic too”, chimed Sagittarius with a neigh. “Different magic, of course. Other elements. I am a fire-user and so are you, Mattie. Cancer, of course, a water-user.”

Aquarius tilted her head as she came running downstairs... chasing after a hissing Ace. The dragon paused and wiggled her butt before jumping Ace, pinning the kitten to the floor.

“If your dragon eats my cat, you are _fired_ , Tanya!”, exclaimed Matt wide-eyed.

“Oh, calm down, sunshine”, snorted Tanya with an eye-roll. “She's just playing with Ace.”

Very slowly did Aquarius let go of Ace's tail before she sat up and walked over to Tanya to sit next to her human. Tanya and Melanie had taken their places opposite Mike and Matt.

“We gotta talk about the whole superhero-gig”, stated Matt seriously.

“...Wait. What happened to you?”, asked Melanie concerned as she finally properly looked at them.

“Car accident. Involving a giant yellow snake”, muttered Matt with a frown. “That's why we have to talk. Mike and I, we agreed that we want to become heroes.”

“Great! So have we!”, exclaimed Tanya excitedly, smiling broadly.

“You have?”, asked Mike surprised, looking at Melanie.

Melanie got up and looked at Taurus, nodding at the bull. The next moment, she was surrounded by dark-green light, like shining emeralds. As the light ebbed away again, Melanie was wearing a rather off outfit, like dark-green leather with padded armor. She was also holding a long, pointy golden spear. Mike backed off on instinct. Seeing Melanie changed into her superhero-costume made Tanya get up motion for Aquarius. Moments later and she stood there, in her skin-tight dragon-leather dress and with the high-heels. Melanie made a sound not unlike a dying whale.

“That's... That's your costume? Really?”, asked Matt doubtfully.

“I'm fashionable”, shrugged Tanya and twirled once.

“And... a cape?”, tagged Matt on and shook his head.

“It's classy, okay Edna?”, huffed Tanya with a glare.

Matt snorted and turned to Sagittarius. “So, what? Do we have that too? Costumes and weapons?”

“Yes. That falls under the category of the powers I told you about that we can grand you”, nodded Sagittarius, nudging Matt with her horn. “You have to concentrate and imagine the costume and it will appear. But only once. I mean, you can only imagine one costume. Once you set it, it won't just... change every time. Concentrate on it and it and your weapon will appear.”

With a doubtful frown did Matt get up and close his eyes. When he opened them again, he turned to face the mirror, checking how it had turned out. He smirked pleased. He was wearing a sleeveless dark-yellow leather vest, padded to make it bullet-proof. The upper half of his face was covered by a leather mask with the symbol of Sagittarius on the center of his forehead. His pants were comfortable, loose, nearly white yellow linen that would prove easy to run in. The shoes he wore were perfect for running too; they were from _his_ line of running shoes, after all. In one hand, he was holding an elegant silver bow. A longbow, Matt's personally preferred type of bow. He smiled pleased at that. In his other hand was he holding a quiver, the shade of yellow matching his mask and filed with elegant silver arrows. Taking one arrow out, he twirled it curiously in his hand.

“Nice”, hummed Matt contently. “I can work with that. Now show me yours, Mikey.”

Mike frowned but got up and tried concentrating on a costume that could be practical. Looking into the mirror after the transformation was done, he nodded pleased. Dark-blue spandex, padded though and with a chest-plate of armor. Also sturdy, heavy boots and gloves that matched. The only thing he was unsure about the weapons though. Two golden rings, large enough to circle a hand each. From each golden ring grew one curved silver blade, thick at the base and then thinning out to a sharp tip. They looked dangerous, though Mike wasn't sure how to use them exactly.

“And now?”, asked Melanie, looking at them.

“Now we train”, stated Matt with a smirk.

 

~*~

 

Mike groaned exhausted as he collapsed on the bed face first. Matt chuckled, barely looking up from his book. They had spent the past five hours straight just training. Hand to hand combat as well as the way they were supposed to use their weapons. Matt had the clear upper hand in all aspects, since he was trained in various martial arts, as well as archery. Tanya too was trained in hand-to-hand combat and she knew how to use a sword, having learned sword-dancing as a child.

The only ones who had struggled through training had been the Maguire-siblings. Mike knew some hand-to-hand combat and he knew how to handle a gun, but the blades? They were an experience. And now they would start seriously training. The good thing was that Matt was already training. Their basement had been modified for his personal preference. They had an indoor pool in the basement, as well as a training room. Mike occasionally joined him downstairs for training. Now, Mike was going to join him down there for good and Melanie and Tanya were going to come too.

“We'll train and get better before we can go out there”, stated Matt, leaning in to kiss Mike's cheek. “We have to work out the kinks of our team-work. We have to be able to fight together.”

“Of course”, sighed Mike frustrated. “Still though... It looks easier in the comics.”

“...Comics?”, drawled Matt slowly, turning toward him with a pointed look. “I am neither Batman nor Iron Man, babe. Don't... nerd out on me now.”

“Okay, first of all, my beloved billionaire archer, if anything you'd be Oliver Queen”, countered Mike seriously, leaning in and kissing Matt's cheek. “And secondly, let me nerd out about us becoming superheroes, will you, babe?”

Matt huffed softly, smiling as he turned to snuggle up to his fiance. He couldn't believe it either, really. But seeing Leo and Scorpio... Seeing them save lives while Matt stood by frozen. No. He could not let that slip. He had to be able to _do_ something.

 

~*~

 

Training was hard, especially for Melanie, who had _no_ experience with those type of things. But Matt was an impressive teacher. Which, really shouldn't be a surprise. When he had raised his corporation from the ground, he had worked as an instructor for self-defense classes, among other things. He had worked _three_ jobs while _Chiron Training_ was slowly taking off.

It was one of the things Melanie respected about her future brother-in-law. He was hard working and determined and he did everything to get what he wanted. It was also why Melanie saw him as a worthy leader for a superhero-team. He was reasonable, level-headed, brilliant. A genius, really. The things he had developed, the things that had brought him his billions.

“Mh. You seem vaguely familiar. Have I seen you before, ma'am?”

Frowning, Melanie looked up from her salad. Her eyes widened a little. Gulping, she put her fork down and straightened a little. The ginger in front of her sat down, eyebrows raised in judgment.

“Basty”, whispered Melanie, fidgeting with the hem of her shirt.

“Oh. So you _do_ remember my name”, drawled Basty. “Considering you seem to have misplaced my number and forgotten where I live and work. Even though I work literally in the same building as you do, Professor Maguire.”

“Sebastian...”, sighed Melanie, slumping down in her chair. “Don't be like this.”

“It's been _weeks_. Weeks since you and I last hung out”, pointed Basty out unimpressed. “Unless you now tell me that you actually managed to land a _girlfriend_ and don't know how to manage your time anymore, you really got some explaining to do.”

Basty got comfortable on the chair opposite her, eyeing her judgmentally. Melanie started squirming nearly instantly. Sebastian Weinberg had been her best friend for years now and she _hated_ lying to him – she had never lied to him before. They had a relationship based on trust. The one person she had been able to rely on after her parents had died. Lying to him went against her instincts. But Tanya had actually _helped_ her. Finding a lie that was only kind of a lie, to make it less a problem.

“It's the wedding”, sighed Melanie, taking her glasses off to rub her eyes. “I've been helping Matt and Mike with their wedding. They do want to get married this autumn and between being CEO, head designer of his products and a person with a personal life, Matt is in over his head and my brother is next to useless. I've going over to help them nearly every day in the past few weeks and I just... I also have work to do and I... I'm sorry I've been neglecting you. I suck.”

Sebastian raised both his eyebrows, his ice-blue eyes softening. “Yeah, you do. You can never say no to _anyone_ , Maguire. And I know you'll always go the extra-mile for your siblings. So... just... at least text me sometimes, yeah? I worry about you, dorkus.”

Melanie grumbled and kicked Sebastian under the table. “Shut it, dorkus.”

“Okay. So. The reason why I have been trying to reach you for the past week straight”, started Sebastian, leaning forward with a gleam in his eyes. “You know how _Fantastic Beasts_ is going to come out soon. And... wait for it... they're re-releasing the actual _Harry Potter_ movies in cinema.”

“Shut your trap, Weinberg!”, exclaimed Melanie high-pitched, kicking Basty again.

“Ouch”, huffed Basty with an amused grin. “But yes. Yes, they are re-releasing all the movies. And I figured, you and I, we could _finally_ have the perfect theatrical experience of the movies together.”

Melanie made such a high-pitched squealing-noise at that that made everyone around them in the pub looked at them a little disturbed. Not that Melanie could care about that.

“You and me! We will _finally_ see them on the big screen _together_!”, exclaimed Melanie, jumping up and down in utter excitement. “I can't believe this is gonna happen. I just... _yes_!”

Sebastian grinned at her. “See. And you could have had this excitement for over a week if you had answered any of my messages, dorkus.”

This was _amazing_. It was their thing. _Harry Potter_ was literally how Melanie had met her best friend, thirteen years ago, online, writing fanfiction for it and obsessing over Hermione Granger. Sebastian used to mainly write Harry/Hermione, something Melanie dabbled in – though her favorite ships were Hermione/Luna and Hermione/Ginny. But they shared their favorite tropes. And one thing had led to the other, hours and nights spent analyzing every little scene in the books.

They had bonded over their love for this fictional character, but their friendship soon ran way deeper and many years later, when Melanie and her siblings had moved to the United States, Sebastian and his younger cousin had actually followed so Melanie and Sebastian could live in the same city. By now, thirteen years after Melanie had one night gotten lost in a slow-burn Harry/Hermione fic, the two of them were working side by side, Melanie a professor at the University of California, while Sebastian worked as a librarian there.

“Urgh. The nerd-squad. No—o”, groaned Babara dramatically as she put down two teas.

“Gib Ruhe, Giftzwerg”, grunted Sebastian unimpressed. [trans, German: _shut up, poison dwarf_ ]

Melanie raised one slightly unimpressed eyebrow as Babara stuck her tongue out. She was used to the exchanged between the two cousins. Most of the time, they were more like bickering siblings.

“What? I'm right. You two are going to dust off the cosplay and go full Potterheads on me”, snickered Babara fondly. “You know, prof, I could turn you into a uni wide meme if I wanted to with the amount of blackmail photos I got at home of the two of you nerding out.”

“Well, if you want to fail my class”, drawled Melanie with a smile.

The green-haired waitress huffed and flicked her hair back. “Just don't drag me down with you.”

Shaking her head, Melanie hid her small smile. Sebastian was the main reason why she was kind of close to Babara, even though she was Melanie's student. She was, first and foremost, Sebastian's little cousin. Turning toward Sebastian, Melanie grinned broadly.

“This is going to be _epic_ ”, declared Melanie excited. “Also. Bribe your girlfriend into cosplaying Luna. _Please_. Angelique is... she is the embodiment of Luna Lovegood.”

“Already on it”, huffed Sebastian, offended she would assume he didn't already think of that too.

It was strange. Melanie now carried the weight of being a superhero in training on her shoulders, yet something so simple made her feel so happy. She really needed to find a better time-management, between training with Tanya, Matt and Mike and work. She had missed Basty.

 

~*~

 

Matt heaved an exhausted sigh as he just collapsed on a chair in the Saint John's Pub, at his table. Well, not really his, but still kind of his, since he and Mike were regulars here. Him and Mike had spent nearly half the night training one-on-one, so Mike could figure out how to best use his new weapons both in offense and defense. He hadn't spent that much time bruised since he had first picked up martial arts and regularly got his ass handed to him by his uncle.

“Someone looks like he had a rough day.”

“Make that a rough month”, sighed Matt and looked up.

Jamie smiled at him softly before just sitting down next to Matt. It wasn't too busy right now.

“Don't you have to work?”, grunted Matt, slowly running his eyes over Jamie's body.

The lanky brunette looked way too good in the tight dark-red hoodie. And Matt absolutely _loved_ it when Jamie wore his messy chocolate-brown curls put up in a loose bun. It looked so cute and highlighted Jamie's freckles, because the hair didn't fall overly into his face like that. And it was such a pretty face, nothing should hide that pretty face.

“Oh, Chess got it in the kitchen”, assured Jamie with a casual shrug.

“Alone?”, asked Matt impressed. “I thought he was unsure about it.”

“He gets nervous, but damn he's _good_ ”, grinned Jamie. “He just needs to gain some more self-confidence about his cooking, because it is sure worth it.”

It was one of the things Matt loved about Jamie. The confidence and pride that he had in his friends and staff. He would praise Chess' burgers to the moon and back, would whistle and clap when Ryuu was behind the bar and putting on a bit of a show with the bottles; something Ryuu was _amazing_ at and Jessie never actually bothered with because she had no sense for those things.

“So. Tell me about it”, prompted Jamie, sprawling out in his seat a little. “What's going on?”

“Wedding planning is hell”, offered Matt with a thin smile.

It was the lie they all had agreed on. The four of them met nearly daily, planning the wedding. Only... on top of their superhero-training and work, Matt _actually_ had to plan the wedding too. By now he was seriously contemplating that it should be pushed back some. Maybe just... next year?

“Well, elope?”, offered Jamie with a grin and a wink.

Matt made a small noise at the grin. He loved the way those dark-green eyes would twinkle with mischief. Jamie laughed at that, running a hand through his hair to tuck whatever strands of brown hair had escaped the bun. Leaning back in his chair, Jamie raised one eyebrow.

“Seriously though. What speaks against it? Pack Mikey and Rick, Tanya, Mel into a car, drive out 'to visit your family', as you do so often, and just get married in Cat City. I'm sure _someone_ could be certified online to hold the wedding. There. Problem solved. Paparazzi stopped following you to Cat City years ago because it's fucking boring seeing you push your little sister on a swing”, elaborated Jamie with a casual shrug. “Get married at your parents' house, have it over with.”

Matt opened his mouth to protest, just to close it again. His heart fluttered a little at how well Jamie knew them. Eloping – just running away only Matt and Mike to get married in secret – was absolutely not going to happen. Matt could never do that to his mom. Mike would never leave Melanie behind. Rick would never talk to them again if he didn't get to be best man – and Tanya had to be at Matt's side when he was getting married.

The other three hundred guests...? Matt could _definitely_ do without them.

“You know what?”, chuckled Matt and lifted his glass toward Jamie. “I'll keep it in mind, as Plan B. Just in case... this whole wedding planning thing really becomes too much.”

 

~*~

 

Tanya took a deep breath, eyes closed and back straight. Her cape was fluttering behind her, the long sword in her hand feeling heavy but also by now rather comforting. They had spent the past month training with each other. Getting a feeling not just for their own abilities and weapons but also for each other. So they would work _as a team_. And now it was time for the trial run.

“We sure about this?”, asked Matt lowly, slipping one hand into hers, squeezing.

Smiling, she turned toward him, blinking a couple of times. “I am. Let's see about those two.”

“Hey!”, chorused the Maguire siblings with matching glares on their faces.

Huffing, Michael straightened, the blades tightly gripped in his hand. “Let's do this.”

“I mean, it's _one_... Hydra. We can do this”, offered Melanie, gripping her spear tightly.

“Technically”, interjected Cancer from next to Michael. “This is Hydrus. The male water-snake. The Hydra is red. And female.”

Sagittarius neighed at that and at the unimpressed looks on the humans' faces. Before they could change their minds, the four charged. Or, well, leaped off the skyscraper. They had been at the _Chiron Training_ headquarters when smoke rising from a nearby building had alarmed them of something being wrong. This was as good a time to test themselves as any. Mike was screeching high-pitched and clinging onto Matt with his eyes closed. The more floors they fell, the louder his screeching got. Half-way down, Tanya closed her eyes and concentrated hard.

She had gotten very good at controlling her element. Air. Solidifying it, using it as a support system to fly – at least her cape proved to be handy as a replacement for wings then. Slowly, the air started to pillow their fall, slowing them down, as though instead of falling through air, they were sinking into mud. Until they safely landed on the ground. The proud grin on Tanya's lips nearly split her face and Melanie squealed before she hugged Tanya tightly.

“Oh god, you actually did it!”, exclaimed Melanie, jumping in excitement.

Tanya grinned and ducked her head. Now was not the time to celebrate though. Hydrus spotted them, snarling and heading their way. Taking a deep breath, Matt notched an arrow and sent it flying straight into one of the beast's eyes. The Hydrus wailed at that, backing off startled. Smirking, now feeling more sure of himself, Matt notched the next arrow. Tanya, Mike and Melanie charged with their own weapons, they they were more for short-distance battle. And training with a human was different than with a skyscraper-tall dragon-like creature. Hydrus swatted them away with large, clawed hands, like they were mere insects, agitating him.

Or, in short: They had vastly overestimated what a month of training would do them good.

“Hey, kids. Get off our fucking lawn!”

Tanya's head snapped over to glare at Leo as the red-clad hero came running toward them, flaming sword in hand. His partner Scorpio came swinging in on her whip, kicking the Hydrus right in one of his faces. Still glaring, Tanya went to help Melanie sit up.

“Seriously”, growled Leo once Scorpio had the heads tied with her whip. “Stop playing around. If you can't hold your own in a fight, then let the grown-ups handle it.”

“We were perfectly fine”, snarled Melanie, not very good with critique.

“Sure. Saw that”, huffed Leo unimpressed.

“Or you could, you know, train us. Work with us”, suggested Mike calmly.

“Ye—eah. Not happening”, snorted Leo. “Last time we ran into a Zodiac and were eager to accept a new team-mate, she _literally_ stabbed me in the back. You four? Just showing up out of no where, after the Zodiacs have been on Earth for two months? I'm not buying it. Now get out of the way.”

All four were frustrated and annoyed as they watched Leo and Scorpio handle the beast with well-practiced ease. They were also concerned about his words though. A... traitor...?

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now we finished the first arc. The basic introductions of those four. Next chapter, we're going to meet Leo more upclose and personal. Which. I am SUPER excited about, because he's kind of the reason I started writing this story and technically is THE main character, but hey, I suck and holding back so there is that. xD


	8. Jamie & Babs

_Chapter 8: Jamie & Babs_

 

There was fire everywhere. Everything was tinted in red and orange, the flames licking up old and familiar walls. He looked around frantically, but between the flames and the smoke, it was downright impossible to see anything. But he could head the voice, could hear _her_ voice...

“Mamaí, mamaí, where are you?”

“A mhic mo chroí, please, get out of here”, called her voice back. [Irish trans: _my darling son_ ]

“Mamaí! I'm not leaving without you! Please! Where are you?”

“Oh, buachaill ceansa, my brave one, please save yourself.” [Irish trans: _sweet boy_ ]

“No! Mamaí, no!”

 

~*~

 

“Jamie! Jay! _Jay_! Wake up!”

Someone shaking him violently woke him from his nightmare. His breathing was labored as he sat up and looked around wildly. His eyes were wide and frantic as he looked around. The image of fire only melted away from his mind when the person in front of him came into focus – the first thing he saw was bright green. Everything was bright green. No fire. The green came more into focus and among the sea of bitingly bright neon-green saw two bright turquoise gems, sparkling at him with worry and kindness. Jamie's breathing calmed down as he recognized his best friend's face.

“Everything's fine, Jay. You're home, in your bed, safe. Los Angeles. Not Dublin.”

Blinking sluggishly, Jamie grabbed his head, running his fingers through his long hair slowly. “Cac. Babara Brunhilde Burkhart, you are a fucking godsend.”

“Ye—eah. I know”, grinned Babs. “Also, what did we say about the middle-name?”

She wrapped an arm around his neck and pulled him down to ruffle his hair. Huffing, Jamie wiggled out of it and straightened his curly hair again, glaring at the girl. Babs just offered him a cheeky grin and tucked her green-dyed hair behind her ear.

“I'm serious though”, whispered Jamie, folding his legs beneath his body and tilting his head. “I have no idea what I'd do without you, sióg glas.” [Irish trans: _Green Fairy_ ]

Babs' grin brightened at the nickname and she puffed out her chest a little. “Dude, you'd probably, I don't know, talk to your sister down the hall about this shit.”

“I wouldn't. You know that”, muttered Jamie, burying his face in his hands, taking a deep breath.

“Jess' not a little kid anymore, Jay”, pointed Babs out and raised one eyebrow. “She's a grown-ass woman and I--” Babs paused when she saw the way Jamie glared up at her from beneath his hair falling into his face. “...And I'm shutting up. Yeah. Shutting up now.”

Jamie fished his elastic out of his hair, running his fingers properly through them. The soft, brown hair fell messily around Jamie's head like a lion's mane. Babs pulled her legs up against her chest and leaned back against the connecting wall between Jamie's her room. She tilted her head to look over at Jamie. With a sigh did Jamie fold in on himself a little and turn to look at her.

“It's so... it's fucking ironic that, of all the people, I ended up with... fire-superpowers”, whispered Jamie into the half-dark room – the only light coming from the streets outside.

He lifted up his right hand and flames started licking around it, dancing around it, lighting up the room more and painting it in the haunting red and orange of his past. Glaring, he balled a fist and the flames disappeared. It was like some sick joke, really. Ten years. He'd spent the last ten years running away from the fire of his past and then, one starry night, fate dropped a _burning lion_ in his lap. A cute little fella with a broad, innocent kitten-smile and a mane of pure fire, declaring James St. John his chosen champion, meant to be a hero, bestowing fire-powers upon him. It could not be anything but a cosmic joke, really not. Jamie startled when water hit him in the face.

“Bee, what did you do that for?”, asked Jamie with a glare, wiping his face.

“Simple, Jay. Because I can”, shrugged Babs with a grin. “Because I disagree. It's not some giant ironic butt of a joke. I think it's poetic justice. That the boy who lost nearly everything to a fire now has the power to _control_ it so it would never hurt him or those he loves again.”

Jamie swallowed hard as he looked at his best friend. “I suppose...”

“Besides, in the greater scheme of things, fate seems to love you because they gave the fire-controller a water-controlling best friend so, just in case, she can drown out any flame that won't listen to him”, ended Babs, her grin softening into a gentle smile as she nudged him.

“Shit, I really don't know what I did to deserve you, Bee”, whispered Jamie.

Babs just smiled in return as she gently guided his head to rest in her lap, playing with his hair until he fell asleep. Once he did, she pulled the blanket up over him and got comfortable herself.

 

~*~

 

“Why, hello there. We really have to stop meeting like that”, hummed Babs as she woke up.

Jamie blinked awake and the first thing he saw was his best friend. “...Agreed. It starts becoming really sad that I keep waking up next to a gorgeous girl but keep not getting laid.”

Huffing, Babs hit Jamie with the pillow. “Idiot. Tell me about it. I keep waking up next to a _guy_. Ew. Damn. I wish I'd... you know... find someone to date. But without having to go out and look.”

“Yeah, if only amazing, kind and sweet people were just dropped in our laps”, agreed Jamie.

“If only. Instead, the only thing we get dropped into our laps are... magic lion cubs”, snorted Babs.

She yawned and stretched, kicking her legs out. Jamie barely dodged her and sprawled out on the bed widely. It had been nearly two months now since _that_ night...

 

~*~ _flashback ~*~_

 

It was a chilly January night. As chilly as the nights in Los Angeles got, anyway. Honestly, Babs kind of hated the climate, at least in winter. Summers belonged hot, sure. But winter? Where was her snow? Her cold, five-layered season. Christmas didn't even _look_ like Christmas around here. It were winter nights like those that she dearly missed Vienna. Austrian winters. _Proper_ winters.

“Hey, look. Shooting stars”, noted Jamie as he joined her up on their joined balcony.

Their rooms were the only ones connecting to the large balcony the apartment over the pub had. It had been an upside to the otherwise rather small room. Not that Babs was complaining, really. It was great enough her best friend _had_ a spare room when Babs had felt the need to move out at home because her cousin and his girlfriend were way too PDA. Not to mention the part where living over the pub meant a literal half minute way to work, which, nice. And besides, by now all bedrooms were about equally small. Jessie and Jamie's large bedrooms had been remodeled in what had been the most exhausting week of Babs' life, pulling up a wall in each room to create two additional bedrooms for Ally and Andy, back when Jamie started fostering the two orphans. Honestly, Jamie could be damn glad that he was living with his sister _and_ his best friend and got the two of them pitching in on the whole parenting-thing, because being a single dad _and_ owning his own pub...? Poor guy would run himself into the ground within half a year, Babs knew that.

“Wishing for Prince Charming downstairs to notice you?”, teased Babs with a cocky grin.

She hip-checked a now slightly flustered Jamie. “I hate you and everything you stand for.”

“Shut up, you love me and you know I'm right”, chimed Babs in a sing-song voice.

“Matt's just looking _really_ good when he's all business”, grumbled Jamie flustered.

Matteo di Girasole, CEO of Chiron Training, the largest sports-equipment enterprise. The man himself literally in the list of top ten richest people in the US. And of course did Babs' best friend have to go and fall for him. Like that wasn't insane enough, Jamie had also managed to fall for Matt's fiance. Honestly, Babs now had six years of experience with James St. John yet this one was the craziest thing that boy had ever gone ahead and done.

“Honestly, I think the hot blonde he's with is _way_ more of an eye-candy”, hummed Babs.

“That's Sonia Gold. As in the head of _Gold Standard_ , Babara”, countered Jamie.

“Yeah. The billions of dollars only make her hotter”, confirmed Babs with a wink.

And how was this her reality? Or any reality at all? Two filthy rich billionaires who came to some cozy, down-to-Earth Irish pub for a business deal. Surreal, still. And no one could convince Babs that it had nothing to do with Jamie. Suddenly, something hit her head, making her yelp.

“What was that?”, asked Jamie doubtfully, looking at his best friend.

“The sky's falling onto our heads, the end of the world is near”, grumbled Babs, rubbing her head.

“Maybe someone threw something out of a window”, shrugged Jamie, motioning at the higher buildings. “Or a bird... uh... dropped something?”

“Ew. Ew, James, ew”, groaned Babs. “No. Something fell from the sky.”

“What? A shooting star?”, laughed Jamie amused.

“No. A—that”, grunted Babs and leaned down to pick up the small magenta-colored sphere up.

“...A marble?”, asked Jamie confused and leaned in. “It's... pretty?”

And it was. It was a dark magenta, glass from the looks of it, but with some kind of symbol encased in the glass. A lower-case M with a fancy little twirl at the end. Blinking slowly, Babs rolled it around between her fingers. It really was pretty, though she didn't understand where it came from. When looking up at Jamie, she noticed something reflecting the light from his hoodie.

“Huh. Another one”, grunted Babs curiously and picked the red sphere out of the hood.

“Also pretty”, hummed Jamie and took the dark-red glass orb from her. “What, is someone tossing out their marble collection...? Out of the windows? That's weird even for LA standards.”

“Marbles, mh? Do you... think that's what they are?”, asked Babs thoughtfully.

“What else could they be?”, asked Jamie with a frown. “No hole in them so they're not glass-beads from some overly fancy necklace or anything...”

“I don't-”, started Babs just to be interrupted by the two not-marbles glowing brightly.

Both Babs and Jamie stared wide-eyed as two lions materialized in front of them. One was a soft berry-purple and was spotting a magenta scorpion-tail, the other was dark-red and had a main and the tail-tip literally set on fire. Gaping, Babs looked from the lions to the marbles.

“Holy shit, those are Pokéballs”, muttered Babs. “Fuck Pokémon Go, this is the future.”

“So you're seeing those too?”, asked Jamie slowly, grabbing Babs by the shoulder.

“Yep. See them. They're kind of... adorable?”, offered Babs.

“Thank you. You are kind of adorable for a human too!”, replied the purple lioness.

“I am Leo Major. Leo for short. And this is Scorpio. We are the manifestations of the great constellations”, declared the red lion, puffing his chest out much like Simba. “We, along with the other constellations, occasionally come down here onto Earth and pick champions to fight at our side. You two were chosen by us. We can grand you our powers.”

“Nothing about that made sense”, muttered Babs. “I mean, I am a Scorpio, Zodiac-wise, but...”

“Yes, that!”, exclaimed Scorpio and jumped up onto her hind-legs to half climb up Babs. “You humans assigned us twelve special meaning by making us your Zodiacs and thus, we gained... special powers. Powers we can share with you. And you will be our champions.”

“You're really adorable”, mumbled Babs and started patting the big kitten's head.

“How are you not more concerned about what they're saying or what they are?”, complained Jamie.

“Eh. I'm taking things in stride”, shrugged Babs. “So you guys are like animal companions to give us Magical Girl powers so we can save the world...?”

“I like mine. She gets it”, purred Scorpio and leaned into the chin-scratching she got.

“There is great danger and we need your help to fight it”, stated Leo seriously, though his seriousness was undermined by him bumping his head against Jamie's leg for attention.

“I run a pub. I'm not superhero-material”, argued Jamie reluctantly.

“Yeah, you are”, disagreed Babs with a hip-check. “You're total hero-material. And I am total Magical Girl material. And together we save the world.”

“How are you a real person?”, asked Jamie doubtfully and side-eyed her.

“Dude, I'm just good at adapting to the weird”, shrugged Babs. “And this is cool-weird.”

She grinned as she picked up Scorpio. Scorpio cooed as she snuggled up to Babs for cuddles. Jamie all the while watched them cautiously and scratched Leo behind the ear.

 

~*~ _flashback end ~*~_

 

And that had been two months ago. Scorpio, the scorpion-tailed lion who was in fact a manticore, and Leo, the flame-maned leader of the Zodiacs, had moved in with Babs and Jamie and made them swear secrecy on their powers. Which was kind of obvious, because they did not look forward to to being called crazy or locked away for experiments. For the first two weeks, Jamie and Babs trained hard – both their fighting abilities and their elemental-powers – before making their superhero-debuts as Scorpio and Leo. They had gotten to pick their outfits themselves, based on what they thought was most befitting. Jamie had not been surprised when Babs chose the most Magical Girl thin possible – frilly, layered skirt, thigh-high boots, white body with puffy sleeves. Though she had made one clever alteration that Jamie hadn't thought of. Her very distinctive neon-green hair changed to dark-purple when she transformed, making the leap to her civil identity. Though Jamie effectively hid his identity under the dark-red mask and hood too. A hooded leather-jacket in all-red, with a furred rim along the hood. Jamie loved his outfit, really. Both him and Babs had learned to use their weapons too – Babs' whip with the poisonous tip and Jamie's flaming sword.

And their elements.

Fire and water. A pretty good duality, if Jamie had to be honest. Then again, that was just very quintessentially _them_. Complementing each other. While they had started out small enough with a regular human robbery, they had worked their way up. They had by now faced the minions multiple times. Hydra and Hydrus, left and right hand of whoever the Big Bad was.

“So, we got any plans for today?”, asked Babs where she was sprawled out on Jamie's bed.

“I don't know. Days off are always odd”, admitted Jamie and laid down next to her.

Both crossed their arms behind their heads and looked up at the ceiling, where a _Lion King_ movie poster hung. He had always liked the movie, but after getting supernatural versions of Simba and Nala...? He couldn't resist putting the poster up, especially after him and Babs made the mistake of watching the movie with Leo and Scorpio. Both lions _loved_ it, unsurprisingly.

“Giving Chess more responsibility in the kitchen was a good call, Jay”, assured Babs.

Jamie hummed noncommittally. Chess had been his apprentice for a while, but damn was he good and lately, it had been an overwhelming work-load thanks to the side-job as Los Angeles' celebrated superheroes. They had literally already made a name for themselves as Team Lionheart. People already celebrated them, after only a month of them doing the heroing. Then again, there were suddenly giant, crazy monsters attacking the city like they were in some Kaiju movie – so the citizens of Los Angeles were understandably grateful to the real-life superheroes.

“Breakfast?”, suggested Jamie after a beat and got out of the bed.

Humming in agreement, Babs followed him outside. They walked past the bathroom, down the hall to the kitchen. It was already rather noisy, meaning they were the last ones to wake up. Jamie's younger sister Jessie was standing at the stove, making what looked like pancakes.

“Morning, you two”, greeted Jessie. “Breakfast?”

“Morning”, chorused Ally and Andy, sitting at the kitchen-table.

Jamie smiled as he ruffled Andy's hair in passing. It was weird, he had never really seen himself as a _father_. But he was definitely the type of person to take in strays, if Babs was any indication. And both Jamie and his sister knew what it was like to be orphans, fending for yourself.

“How long do you think it'll take until we can have cool Leo and Scorpio toys?”, asked Andy.

Babs choked on her orange juice, coughing violently. “W—What?”

“They're real heroes. And, like, on _Flash_ , they have real action figures of Flash and Arrow too, which is super cool. So, do you think they'll make real action figures of our real heroes?”

All Jamie could do was blink slowly and stare at the kid. “I... guess that would be a problem with the, uh, copyright of their likenesses or something...?”

“Yeah, like, they're real. They're not owned by some kinda corporation that's gonna make money off them”, agreed Ally, kicking her feet back and forth. “But it'd be cool, I guess.”

“Someone's gonna try to make money off of them soon enough”, commented Jessie. “Anyway, did you see the news last night? That there's like... a new team of superheroes in town?”

“Didn't look so super to me”, shrugged Andy. “They were super useless.”

“No kidding. Scorpio and Leo totally had to carry their weight”, agreed Ally, munching pancake.

“They're still inexperienced”, offered Babs. “Who knows, maybe they'll grow into it and will be helpful? LA is pretty big, Scorpio and Leo won't be able to defend it all on their own forever.”

Jamie glared pointedly at her. Yes, they could. They definitely could. He didn't trust those four newbies one bit. Not after the last time. Babs and Jamie had met another Zodiac before and falsely trusted her, just to be literally stabbed in the back by her and he was not going to risk his own life or Babs' life again like that. The two were a two-people team and that was enough.

 

~*~ _flashback – two weeks ago ~*~_

 

They had their first run-in with Libra nearly a month ago. She gave off slight diva vibes with her floor-long dress, but the woman packed quite the punch and was a ruthless fighter with her mezzaluna knife. It was on their third encounter though that Jamie realized who they were fighting with was most definitely not an ally as she very literally stabbed Jamie in the back.

“Sorry, but... in the greater scheme of things, taking over wins out over defending.”

Jamie stared in surprise at Libra before he collapsed on the ground and passed out. Babs was torn between chasing after her, but then she looked at Jamie, laying on the ground, bleeding. She narrowly managed to dodge Hydrus' attack as she gathered Jamie up and retreated. She barely made it behind the pub before collapsing right beside Jamie, panting hard.

“Shit. Shit, what do I _do_?”, cussed Babs wide-eyed.

“You help him”, stated Scorpio next to her.

The little purple lioness appeared in a flash of light, as she tended to. Babs had gotten used to this rather quickly, a magic lion who appeared and disappeared at will, tethered to the marble. Essentially a Pokémon, which Scorpio enthusiastically agreed with after being introduced to Pokémon, because she really loved cute things.

“H... How? I can hardly bring him to a hospital like this!”, exclaimed Babs distressed.

“You have healing powers”, replied Scorpio and tilted her head. “I figured you were busy enough training the whole water-control, but water is healing. One of my previous human partners, Serket, she was known for her healing abilities. Though, well, she did specialize in healing poisonings...”

“Serket. Egyptian goddess. Right”, nodded Babs, eyes wide and eyebrows raised high. “ _How_?”

“Humans are mostly water, so you have to... to concentrate on his water and on what is _wrong_ with it and just... fix it”, replied Scorpio distressed. “I don't know, this is hard to explain?”

Muttering beneath her breath, Babs closed her eyes and pressed her hands against Jamie's back. Okay, so Scorpio was right, she actually could feel that something was wrong with Jamie's essence. She pushed, trying to form it in her mind, the way she could concentrate water into shapes and levitate it around. Just that in this time, she was using the water to knit Jamie's skin back together.

 

~*~ _flashback end ~*~_

 

“Babs? You bringing the kids to school today? Babs?”, asked Jessie, pulling Babs out of her mind.

She shook herself, trying to forget the memory of her best friend bleeding on the ground. “Yeah.”

Jamie watched her carefully, but she just dodged him and left, ushering Ally and Andy along with her and leaving the Saint John siblings alone. Jessie sat down next to her brother casually.

“So... Who are you seeing?”, asked Jessie, one eyebrow cocked.

Jamie coughed, choking on his orange juice. “I'm sorry, what?”

“You've been sneaking in late and been gone a lot lately”, offered Jessie casually and shrugged. “I know you, deartháir. You like to not make a big deal out of it whenever you meet someone, _especially_ since Andy and Ally have been staying around. You don't want them to get attached and you don't want to jinx anything. And that's cute, really. But... I'm your sister and you are absolutely obligated to not keep secrets from me.” [Irish trans: _brother_ ]

“That is not how that works”, snorted Jamie and shook his head. “Honestly, why can't you be more like other sisters, who could not care less about their brothers' love-life...?”

“Love you too”, hummed Jessie, slowly sipping her coffee. “Now spill the beans.”

“There is nothing to spill”, sighed Jamie and shook his head. “It's nothing. No one. Really.”

“Su—ure”, drawled Jessie in utter disbelief. “As long as you didn't get back together with Mitch.”

“Why do you say his name like that? He wasn't a bad guy”, grunted Jamie with a pout.

“He wasn't exactly a good guy either”, muttered Jessie unconvinced. “I love you, Jay, but you got the worst taste in guys. You always get your heart broken, it's ridiculous.”

“It's not a guy. Not a girl either. It's not a human!”, exclaimed Jamie frustrated and threw his hands up into the air. “I swear, I am not seeing anyone. I just... I had trouble sleeping lately, so I like to take late-night walks. To clear my head. Nothing to worry about, honest.”

Jessie still looked doubtful, but Jamie just left her standing there. It was time to get ready anyway.

 

~*~

 

Jamie yawned. The day had been too long already and he was grateful that Chess would be taking the late-night shift. Today, Jamie _really_ needed to call it a night. And he actually did mean a night-night, not a 'calling it a night to go out and save the world'-night.

“You look beat, boss”, noted Chess softly.

Jamie grinned at his cook. Chess was a tall, athletic black man with a well-groomed goatee, only a little younger than Jamie, by three years. Twenty-three and a college student, earning his living by working at the _St. John's Pub_. Though Chess had real talent and Jamie wasn't quite sure what a guy like him was doing studying literature while he quite clearly belonged in a kitchen.

“Got a bad night”, sighed Jamie and shook his head. “Probably going straight to bed.”

“Sure about that? Your favorite guests are in”, noted Chess with a playful grin. “They came just as I did. Figured you might want to go and say hi.”

Honestly, did everyone at the pub know that Jamie had a perhaps maybe minor crush on Matt and Mike...? He completely blamed Jessie for that though; his sister loved rattling him out. Grumbling beneath his breath, Jamie passed Chess to get to the main part of the pub. He smiled softly as he entered the bustling, loud room. Music – mainly Irish folks-music with the occasional current charts hit thrown in – was blaring loudly, the guests were talking and laughing, the light was dim but warm and cozy. Jerseys of the local Rugby team hung on the walls, as well as old-fashioned beer ads and a lot of photos, most of which he had taken himself, of Dublin. The corners that he called home and territory a long time ago. He exchanged a look with Ryuu behind the bar – it was a busy night, some game was on the TVs and the large screens they had in the two large rooms of the pub, the third and smaller one meant for private events mostly only had a large flat-screen, no projector.

Jamie loved his pub. He loved this tiny piece of his home that he had brought with them to Los Angeles. It had taken him years to acquire the pub and to turn it into what he wanted it to be, but here he was – owning his own establishment and having every right to be proud of it.

“He—ey. You're here”, stated Mike with a happy smile as he spotted Jamie.

Blinking slowly, Jamie turned to face the couple. Mike and Matt were sitting at their usual table, beers already at their sides. Like most of the times, Matt was dressed casually in beige pants and a yellow shirt. It was rare and reserved to business interactions that he would wear a suit; Jamie loved those rare occasions, though honestly Matt looked good in everything. His long, hazelnut brown hair was falling over his shoulders in a very enchanting way. Most of the time, Matt had it tied in the back of his neck to have it out of the way. Mike however looked just like always, three-day beard shadowing his sharp features, his favorite dark-blue hoodie over his shirt, a smile in place. Mike was taller than Matt by maybe one and a half heads – Jamie knew he himself fell right in the middle between them there. Smiling at the couple, Jamie tucked his hair behind his ear.

“It's my bar”, stated Jamie a little amused. “Of course I'm here.”

“No, I meant here-here. Instead of in the kitchen”, grunted Mike with a scowl.

Mike was cute when he was scowling. The thought had barely passed his mind when Jamie could already feel his cheeks heating up. Matt offered him the most charming smile as he pushed a chair lightly back with his feet, indicating toward it with a nod of his head.

“Do you... want to join us? If you don't have anything else to do?”, offered Matt.

For a long moment, Jamie just stared at them. And then he figured, why not. Carefully, he sat down next to Mike and relaxed into the seat. After hours of staying in the kitchen sitting was nice.

“So how's the wedding-planning going?”, asked Jamie curiously.

“More exhausting than anticipated”, sighed Matt frustrated. “Honestly, times like these make me wish I'd never left Cat City. Just a small, tiny affair with the family and the tribe.”

“Ah, yes. Being a celebrity and billionaire must be horribly hard”, sighed Jamie in understanding.

Matt huffed and elbowed Jamie, causing the cook to pause because oh, Matt smelt _nice_. Being in love with a billionaire was insane but being in love with a billionaire who was happily engaged was just downright moronic. Sighing, Jamie watched Matt and Mike exchange a longing look.

 

~*~

 

When Babs returned from her shift at work, she found Jamie curled together on the couch with Andy tucked under his chin, both of them looked nearly asleep already as _The Lion King_ was running on the TV. Smiling amused, Babs went to turn off the TV just to be interrupted.

“Ey. I'm watching that”, grunted Ally from the armchair she was curled up on.

“Right”, chuckled Babs. “Can you make sure Andy goes to bed when the movie's over?”

Ally shrugged indifferently, eyes trained on the screen. “Guess so.”

“Alright. Good night then”, offered Babs before leaving the living room again.

Ally waved at Babs absentmindedly, hugging the pillow closer to herself as she mouthed along to the song. The girl was sometimes very closed off – then again, she was fourteen and had been in the system for the past three years. She was used to being returned for being too complicated. A trouble-magnet. Babs had the feeling that Ally was slowly starting to grow more comfortable in the apartment and with them as a family, of sorts. But she was still rather distant at times.

“You look sleepy”, noted Scorpio as soon as Babs entered her bedroom.

“Eh. I mean. A bit. But also kinda... wired?”, offered Babs thoughtfully. “I _feel_ like patrolling but I know Jay and I agreed not to go out on our own without the other and Jay most definitely is going to need his sleep after last night but urgh, what else am I supposed to do?”

“You haven't spent a lot of time with your friends lately?”, suggested Scorpio.

“That... That is actually the perfect idea, kitty-cat”, grinned Babs and went to her closet, tucking her phone between her shoulder and her cheek. “He—ello, Lizzy! How do you feel about going out tonight? I'll bring Jess, you bring your gorgeous self and we have a girls night out?”

“...Hello, Babs”, replied Lizzy amused. “Ricky went out with Mike anyway, so... sure, why not?”

“Ye—es. Perfect. Awesome. Great. I am so bored”, groaned Babs relieved.

“Just the three of us, or do you want to invite Angel and Mel?”, asked Lizzy curiously.

“I mean, on the one hand, Mel's my professor, on the other hand, she's a friend and I don't have any classes with her tomorrow...”, drawled Babs thoughtfully. “Sure. Yeah. Oh! Here's an idea. I'll also invite Tanya, what do you think?”

“That she's your ex”, pointed Lizzy out. “And you always pull a kicked-puppy after a break-up.”

“Yeah, but she's... been around the pub a lot lately and we've... I think it's fine. She's awesome. I'd hate to not have her in my life at all and considering Jamie was okay having her over at our shared apartment when I started dating her...”, shrugged Babs. “I'll call her, see what she thinks.”

“You're a weirdo, green bean”, noted Lizzy amused. “I'll call Angel and Mel, you do Tanya. See you in... say, an hour? At our usual spot?”

“Mh. Perfect. See ya”, chimed Babs delighted.

 

~*~

 

Jessie was giggling as she and Babs walked arm in arm toward the _Pink Lady_ , an all ladies bar. Not necessarily only for gay women, but just a bar where women could drink and feel safe without drunk men hitting on them and making them uncomfortable. Jessie was the one who had discovered the bar first and of course had dragged her best friend Lizzy Liddell along with her, the next time they also took Babs with them. It became kind of their thing. They started going regularly, occasionally taking Angelique Lamour and Melanie Maguire.

Babs smiled as she saw Tanya waiting in front of the bar. The pretty blonde used to tag along with them a few times when she and Babs had still been dating last year.

“M... Mel...?”, asked Tanya surprised when the trio entered the bar and spotted the rest.

Babs frowned confused while she went ahead to hug Lizzy, Mel and Angel. Lizzy Liddell was this ridiculously tall and gorgeous black woman with endless legs, dark eyes and the most mischievous smile. Compared to her, Angel actually looked like a pixie. The extremely pale blonde was really short, but had this aura to herself – which was what had made her as famous a model as she was by now. She was beautiful and soft and sweet.

“Right. The two of you never actually went out with us _together_ ”, noted Jessie and raised one eyebrow. “Because Mel usually finds a way to worm her way out of hanging out with us.”

“I'm not a people person”, sighed Mel and tucked her long, black hair behind her ear, blushing. “But, uh, I didn't realize you were this close to... Tanya.”

“Oh, yeah, you two know each other, right? Tanya being the assistant of your brother's fiance... damn, that's some weird connection-map in my mind”, grunted Babs and blinked a couple times as the six women all sat down again. “Yeah no, Tanya's my ex. We used to date for... uh... a while.”

“One and a half years. She's literally your longest lasting relationship to date, you walking human disaster”, pointed Lizzy out while scanning the menu. “What? Just stating facts, green bean.”

Babs grumbled but she felt her cheeks heat up. Because yes, Lizzy was right. What Babs and Tanya had had been special, but.. in the end, Tanya prioritized work above all else, relationship included and at one point, Babs just couldn't take being second place anymore.

“But... how do you know Melanie?”, asked Tanya very confused.

“Huh?”, grunted Babs, mirroring Tanya's confusion. “You know that. Best friend of my cousin. The two nerds met writing _Harry Potter_ fanfiction and years later, Basty and I moved to Los Angeles because it's where she lives. And she helped me get into college.”

“...Melanie Maguire is _that_ professor...”, asked Tanya slowly, eyes widened. “I didn't realize that your Mel is actually Mike's sister. That... I never made that connection before. Because _you_ always just call her 'professor'. I don't think I've ever heard you call her by any name, Varya!”

Babs grinned and ducked her head. “Oh? Oops, I guess?”

“Ca—an we maybe get drinks before you start drawing a diagram of how everyone knows everyone here?”, asked Lizzy and raised both her eyebrows very pointedly.

“Good plan”, agreed Angel amused and shook her head.

Babs grumbled beneath her breath and stuck her tongue out as they started ordering.

 

~*~

 

Jamie sighed softly as he leaned against the doorway of Andy's room, watching the boy sleep. He was clutching a Simba toy tightly in his sleep. He never really saw himself as a father, yet those two? They reminded him way too much of himself and Jessie.

“Yo—ou should go to bed too”, pointed Ally out. “You've been even more sleepy than Andy during the movie, you know. And it's getting late. You don't have to stay up and wait on Jessie and Babs.”

Turning some, Jamie looked at Ally. The teen had her hair in a thick braid and was wearing her pink pajamas, holding her Nintendo. Half the time, Jamie regretted getting her Pokémon Sun, but she absolutely _loved_ that game and it occasionally kept her up all night when she was training for an important fight, or whatever. Jamie, personally, had never really gotten into the games, but he had fond memories of watching the anime with Jessie when they were kids.

“You should go to bed. It's late and you're a kid, kid”, countered Jamie in his most dad-voice.

“You suck at this”, snorted Ally amused. “C'mon. It's not a week-night and I'm _not_ a kid.”

“You're fourteen. Of course you're a kid”, huffed Jamie. “And I am a... figure of authority. I am to be listened to, young lady. Now go to bed.”

Ally laughed softly, her eyes sparkling with amusement as she shook her head. “Sure, sure, old man. I'll... 'go to bed'.”

For a moment, Jamie frowned, before calling after her. “ _And_ turn off the electronics!”

No reply, just the closing of Ally's door. Heaving a dramatic sigh, Jamie headed to his own room and collapsed face-first on his bed. Moments later and Leo crawled up to him and snuggled close, nudging the blanket toward him. Rolling onto his side a little, Jamie pulled the blanket around them both, hugging the dark-red lion closer. Leo purred pleased at that, pawing at the pillow.

“No patrolling today? Where did Scorpio go?”, asked Leo curiously.

“According to what Ally said when I woke up toward the end of the movie, apparently Babs and Jessie went out for cocktails with the girls”, yawned Jamie. “No patrolling today. Los Angeles has to stay save on its own tonight, I guess. Or someone else can take care of it.”

With another drawn-out yawn did Jamie bury his face in the soft fur of his companion.

 

~*~

 

Drunk crime-fighting was maybe-perhaps not the _brightest_ idea Babs ever had. Then again, she was drunk so to her it seemed like an amazing idea and she felt very capable. Lizzy and Angel had already parted with them, with Jessie agreeing to drive them home because Angel was very wasted and Jessie was the designated sober person, having to go to work early. Babs had managed to shake off Mel and Tanya surprisingly easily when the smoke rose two blocks down and screams of an attack sounded about. Though the other two women probably hurried to get home to safety.

“Well, well, well. If it isn't our local magical girl. Gonna punish me in the name of the moon?”

“Serpens”, growled Babs angrily, grip on her whip tightening. “I'ma... kick your butt _to_ the moon.”

Glaring, Babs attempted to hit Serpens with the whip, but her aim was way off. The yellow half-snake-woman easily dodged her and raised one very unimpressed eyebrow. The problem was less Serpens herself but more so the fact that of course she came with Hydra and Hydra was busy terrorizing the civilians. This was why they didn't do superheroing on their lonesome.

“Scorpio, can we help somehow?”

Babs stared in suspicious surprise at Taurus and Aquarius. The hot blonde in the turquoise leather-dress and the strict green-dressed woman with the lance. Right. Half of that odd new team that had popped up the other day. And while Babs was curious about them, Jamie was less so. Which, understandable considering Jamie got stabbed in the back from the last stranger they trusted.

“Who is she?”, asked Taurus, readying her lance. “ _What_ is she?”

“She's Serpens”, replied Babs, sending a blast of cold water out to literally wash out the civilians that refused to leave the scene and preferred to film. “The second-in-command.”

“...Second-in-command of _what_?”, asked Aquarius.

“The Big Bad”, offered Babs and rolled her eyes. “She's not a monster of the week. And she's not a _what_ , she's a _who_. She's a human, taken over by the villains. And if you wanna be useful, go and fight off Hydra before _she_ eats any civilians. That's never good press.”

She figured that if Taurus and Aquarius really were playing them, then they very much knew about the hierarchy of the bad guys so this was certainly not new information to the two. The other two women exchanged a look before they nodded reluctantly.

“I don't think it's a good idea leaving you on your own because you seem unfocused, but we understand that you do not trust us yet and have no reason to, so we'll listen to you”, agreed Taurus.

Babs raised both eyebrows as she watched Taurus and Aquarius run off to fight Hydra. The next moment, her attention was demanded by Serpens though as the half-snake-woman attacked her. The fight was harder than it should be. They were literally fire and water clashing, so Babs had the natural upper hand here, but Serpens was more trained in basic combat and also she had a damn tail. Still, in the end – and with the help of Aquarius and Taurus defeating Hydra for now – Serpens retreated, battered and bruised. Only that Babs was also battered and bruised. When she saw Taurus and Aquarius coming toward her, most likely to try and talk to her, Babs made for a quick exit. She knew the best and sneakiest way back to the _Saint John Pub_ , back home. Two streets down, Babs changed back to her civil identity, straightening her dress and continuing on.

“You're late. Jessie already arrived home and she said she took Angel and Lizzy home.”

Babs blinked as she found Jamie sitting on her bed, frowning at her sleepily. “Between Angel and Tanya, do you ever think it's weird that two of your sister's friends are your exes...?”

“Avoiding the question”, sighed Jamie. “I saw the breaking news. An attack from Hydra. Close enough to the _Pink Lady_ and with a sighting of Scorpio and 'two unnamed, new hot-shot heroes'.”

Jamie scowled at her, causing Babs to grown and throw herself onto her bed. “Not like I went out looking for trouble, but what was I supposed to _do_? Turn my back when they literally attack right there, in front of me, where I am...? Anyway, why are _you_ awake?”

“Went for a glass of water, found Ally sitting on the counter watching a youtube live-stream of the fight”, muttered Jamie and laid down on his back, staring up at the ceiling. “...What a mess...”

Silence fell between them until they both, driven by exhaustion, fell asleep.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I considered doing the proper introduction chapter for Jamie first, but in the end considering I introduced Scorpio and Leo as a team before, their first introduction should be of them as a duo before we'll get into their individual focus. Next chapter, actual Jamie centric chapter - which yeah, took a little considering he was kinda supposed to be the MAIN protagonist when I started planning this story. *laughs sheepishly*
> 
> Also, to all the Libras out there, worry not. We all love a good redemption story, don't we? ;D


	9. James St. John

_Chapter 9: James St. John_

 

Jamie was tired. To the bone tired, not just didn't sleep well tired. Being a superhero was more exhausting than cartoons had made it look. Especially when one had to keep up appearance for the private, secret identity. But Ally, Andy and Jessie could absolutely under no circumstances be pulled into whatever this mess was. Jamie had always been the big brother, protecting his little sister – and now he was also a father. Ally and Andy would only worry about him.

“You look sad”, hummed Leo and nudged Jamie's face.

Honestly, the over-sized kitten was absolutely adorable. Jamie smiled faintly and wrapped an arm around the lion cub, pulling him closer. Leo started purring and pawing at the pillow, rolling over to bare his soft, light-red belly. Whenever Leo was _not_ actively on fire, he was very cuddly.

“It's just... stressful”, sighed Jamie absentmindedly. “And now, with the new guys popping up... Aquarius, Taurus, Sagittarius, Cancer... They've been all over the news lately.”

“And you're worried”, noted Leo, ears twitching adorably.

Jamie smiled faintly and traced the Leo-symbol on the lion's forehead, causing Leo to bump his head up into the caress. “I just... When Libra first showed up, I thought we could trust her... and it nearly cost me my life. I can not be that careless again, Leo.”

“You're right”, agreed Leo worried.

“But... why can't we? I mean, why would one of you turn their back on the rest?”, asked Jamie. “I just... I can't figure it out. Why would they turn evil.”

Leo made a curious noise as he rolled over to look Jamie in the eyes. “It's not that they're evil. It... the whole thing isn't black and white, Jamie. Who knows who got to them first before we did? It's about territory, about control. It... It's complicated.”

“What territory?”, asked Jamie confused. “California?”

“Bigger”, chuckled Leo, nosing Jamie's cheek. “We're aliens, Jamie. The planets aside from Earth do have a bit more going on. Territories all over the stars and moons.”

“Magic in the stars”, whispered Jamie with a note of longing in his voice. “But why Earth?”

“Earth is... wanted. It's neutral territory, it's a primitive planet – no offense. But you don't have galactic travels, you don't have magic. You're... a baby-planet and while most agree that Earth needs to be kept out of the loop until it's ready to venture out into the galaxy themselves, some planets think that it means the primitive planet should be claimed and used as a... colony, essentially. But other planets, mine included, think that Earth needs to be protected, given the chance to grow on its own. The Zodiacs, we're kind of... a protective force, sent to protect Earth from alien threats and meant to cover the tracks so humans don't learn the truth. Hence the tales of gods and goddesses.”

Leo crawled on top of Jamie, sprawling out on his chest and pawing at him so Jamie would continue cuddling him. “We twelve are meant to protect the Earth, but sometimes... things fall apart. We've been doing it for _so long_. Sometimes... I don't know what's going through Libra's head.”

“Libra's your friend?”, asked Jamie gently, scratching Leo behind his ear.

Leo closed his eyes and purred as he leaned into the touch. “Of course. We've been comrades for so many millennia now... We've been on so many missions together. I... I really don't wanna fight him. Or any of the others. And I really hate the tension of not knowing who I can trust...”

Sighing, Jamie wrapped his arms around Leo and hugged the lion-cub close.

 

~*~

 

“I'm going to the store. Anyone need anything that's not on the shopping list yet?”

Jamie raised both eyebrows as he poked his head into the living room. Ally and Andy were playing Mario Kart and accusing each other of cheating, while Jessie was... dead? Judging by the uncomfortable angle in which she was sprawled out on the couch, not moving. Which wasn't entirely unusual after a long shift. Being the loving brother he was, he threw a pillow at her.

“Urgh. What?”, grunted Jessie, clutching the pillow.

“Store. You need anything?”, asked Jamie and rolled his eyes.

“Yogurt?”, asked Jessie slowly. “Yeah. Yogurt.”

“Candy”, called Andy out. “And chocolate.”

“I'm good. Unlike other people, I put what I need _on the shopping list_ ”, grunted Ally.

Andy huffed and mimicked Ally, earning himself a gentle jab in the ribs. Rolling his eyes fondly, Jamie grabbed his dark-red leather-jacket and left the apartment. Babs was working and Jamie felt like doing something very, very normal again for a change. Somehow lately his life had been far too hectic. So doing their weekly shopping sounded like a nice change of pace. There was a nice deli just around the corner. He would just go there, get everything from their list and--

“Ah!”

...Never mind. Heaving a sigh, Jamie turned toward the source of the screams. People were running down the streets and, not really surprisingly, there stood the Hydra. A mighty beast with dark-red scales and five heads, roaring. The first time Jamie had seen her, he had been in awe, had been thrown back to his childhood and Disney's _Hercules_. Now, after having been battling it for two months, it grew a little stale if he was being honest.

“Leo”, whispered Jamie. “We're gonna take a little detour, okay?”

The red pearl on his necklace glowed in response. Walking around the corner into a back-alley, Jamie transformed. He straightened the hood of his costume before charging sword-first at the monster. Well. Monster. At its core, it was an alien fused with a human, so Jamie had to be careful.

“Come on, big H, we've already danced this routine. Why don't we just cut it short and you quit?”

“Le—eo”, hissed one of the heads.

“Little lion snack”, snarled another head.

“Actually, I'm the big lion. Leo Major. Not Leo Minor. There's a _difference_. Let me show you.”

With that, he charged ahead and aimed for the Hydra's heart. Only that Jamie, as a fire-user, was a horrible match-up for the water-spewing Hydra. The sword glowed as it singed the Hydra's skin. The beast snarled and swatted at Jamie. With Babs at his side, he'd have someone to have his back, but instead... instead Jamie took the claws to the back. In the end, he wasn't a well-trained Chosen One. He was just a dumb kid from Dublin who'd only been training for two months.

“Wo—oah. Watch out, Leo!”, called a blue-clad guy – one of the new... heroes – out.

That was the last thing Jamie saw and heard before he hit his head and went out.

 

~*~

 

Jamie's head was fuzzy when he woke up. The ceiling he stared up at was not his own. Frowning, he turned a little. It was a bedroom, but not a bedroom he had ever been in before. Bedroom however was good, because if the bad guys had captured him, he'd probably be tied-up in some dungeon or something. The walls were a warm yellow, while the bed-sheets were dark-blue. It looked nice, expensive and also very cleaned-up.

“You're awake. He's awake. Mattie! He's awake!”

Frown deepening, Jamie looked at the very excited Mike Maguire in the doorway. Like a happy puppy, only missing the wagging tail. Jamie shook his head. Wait. Why was he in Mike and Matt's... bedroom? Was that where he was? But the last thing Jamie remembered was a fight... He had been in his superhero-get-up, fighting the Hydra. With wide eyes did Jamie frantically touch his face, to make sure he was wearing his mask. He was. Confusing steadily raising, he looked down at himself. He was wearing his costume. So what was he doing in their bedroom?

“Hello, Leo. Mister Leo?”, tried Mike. “Uhm. You're probably confused. We found you, in an alley. Unconscious. Since none of your partners were around, we... we couldn't just let you lay there. I'm Mike, Michael Maguire, I'm a cop – so I'm one of the good guys too. And this here is my fiance. Matteo di Girasole. Look, he's awake.”

“I... I can see that, amore”, chuckled Matt fondly, kissing Mike's cheek before he turned toward Jamie. “Hello. We don't mean you any harm. We just found you and couldn't leave you laying there. We called a friend of ours, a doctor. Who... Wait just a second...”

Matt left the room again and Jamie used that opportunity to sit up some. He groaned at the ache in his... body. Narrowing it down further seemed not possible at this moment. Instantly, Mike was at his side with concerned eyes. It was kind of odd, seeing them like this. They were behaving so differently from how he was used to. Then again, they didn't know it was him.

“You okay? I mean, of course not, you got slapped around by a giant lizard”, grunted Mike. “But, uh, what hurts exactly? Just, wait a moment, my fiance is getting the doctor.”

“You like saying that”, accused Jamie softly. “Fiance.”

“Uh. Yeah”, admitted Mike with a slight blush. “Is it that obvious? It's only been not even half a year and I dunno, I really like the sound of it, I guess.”

“It's... cute. You love him a lot, huh?”, asked Jamie fondly.

“Ye—eah”, sighed Mike, a content smile on his lips. “I just... never met anyone like him.”

“World-famous billionaires are rare”, agreed Jamie dryly.

“I didn't even know he was a billionaire until we were dating for like a month and the first paparazzi attacked”, grumbled Mike with a frown. “Cheeky little shit just... pretended to run his father's old business. Sports-equipment being 'a family business' and all...”

“Mh. I think I read about that in a magazine before. From rags to riches stories do sell”, hummed Jamie. “Worked in his dad's small shop and then started developing his own equipment.”

“Basically, yeah”, confirmed Mike with a small smile. “He's really hard-working, you know. He sets his goals and... and then he's reaching that goal. It's kinda insane.”

Jamie smiled at himself at that. Mike really was very in love with Matt. It was... cute. At times a tiny bit obnoxious, but overall Jamie wished someone would love him the way Mike loved Matt.

“Ah. My... patient is awake. Not something I say usually.”

Looking up, Jamie saw a tall, broad-shouldered, dark-skinned man approach. He ran a hand over his bald head as he approached Jamie while scowling at Mike rather pointedly.

“Uhm, that is a bit... concerning for a doctor”, grunted Jamie.

“I'm the ME. My patients are normally dead”, countered the doctor. “And I usually don't make house-calls. You'd think, married to a billionaire, you could just call a private doctor.”

“I could”, agreed Matt. “But I don't trust a _stranger_. You, I trust, Doc.”

“I do not make house-calls”, repeated the doctor very slowly and pointedly. “Now get outta here so I can check on my patient. Both of you, get lost.”

With small protests did Mike and Matt leave the room and close the door. Jamie stared wearily.

“Hello. I am Doctor Charles Jones. You have a mild concussion and... at the very least bruised ribs, but I can't be entirely sure. You should go and visit a hospital, out of costume.”

“Yeah. Right. Should do”, nodded Jamie awkwardly. “Thank you, for... helping me.”

“Here”, sighed Doctor Jones and got a card out of his pocket.

“Your... business card...?”, asked Jamie curiously after a look at the small paper. “But didn't you just say you don't do house-calls and glared those two down like there is no tomorrow?”

Charles huffed at that and shook his head. “Can't have the knucklehead call me outta bed at every sniff of his boyfriend. Maguire, he's a good kid, but he's fussy when it comes to Matt. And I got better things to do than that. They can afford their private doctor. You however... if you get hurt on a mission and require a doctor, you can call me.”

“I can? You don't... even know me”, grunted Jamie surprised as he was being examined.

“True, true”, hummed Charles, gently running his fingers over Jamie's ribs. “Yeah, I don't think anything is broken there. See, I don't know you, but... I'm fairly certain you don't know my wife, Laureen, and yet you saved her life the other week, when a giant snake attacked the grocery store she was shopping in. She... would have died if you hadn't saved her. Many, _many_ people would have died and gotten seriously hurt if not for you and Scorpio. You do something that... no one else can. And while I can't do that, I can offer you help if you need it.”

“...Th... Thank you”, whispered Jamie, blinking as he pocketed the card.

Somehow, he had never really considered it. Not  _like that_ . He knew what he and Babs were doing was the right thing, but he had never quite considered just how they affected people. The families of those they saved, people who were not alive only thanks to them.

“Thank you. For saving my wife”, countered Doctor Jones with a soft smile.

With that, he left the room. Moments later and Mike and Matt returned. Matt was better at schooling his features, but Mike still looked like he had a billion questions burning on his mind.

“What exactly happened after I got knocked out...? The Hydra...?”, asked Jamie slowly.

“Oh. Cancer and Sagittarius totally took care of that!”, declared Mike with a broad grin.

“Mh”, grunted Jamie with a deep, thoughtful frown. “They did, huh...?”

“Yeah! I mean, they're heroes too, right?”, asked Mike, with one of his very charming one hundred watt smiles. “They're like you, aren't they? I mean, aren't they part of your... team?”

For a second, Jamie just stared at Mike. He loved that blindingly optimistic, happy smile. It was so... carefree and Jamie found that absolutely captivating. He knew carefree people. But Mike? He was a whole new class of carefree and it was infectious.

“They're not part of my team”, grunted Jamie and shook his head. “Scorpio is my team. They... I don't know who they are. But they're not part of us.”

“Why... not?”, asked Matt cautiously. “I'm sorry, you have no reason to share this with us, you don't even know us. But the thing is, to all of Los Angeles, you and Scorpio are the great heroes and those two, they seem like you? So how come they're not with you?”

Jamie shrugged and averted his eyes. “Scorpio I trust. But those two, I don't know. They just appeared, together with the two women.”

“So you could like... get to know them? The more heroes on a team, the more effective, right?”, asked Mike curiously. “I'm a cop. I have my partner – my Scorpio, I guess. But the two of us can't just... do everything alone. We often need our squad to help out. Wouldn't a squad be more effective for fighting supervillains too? A superhero team?”

It made Jamie smile a little, before he shook his head. “One could say I have trust issues.”

“Why?”, asked Matt warmly.

The better question was, why did Jamie trust them? Talking to Mike and Matt like this was... easy. Somehow, the mask helped. Them not knowing that he was James Saint John. When he was Jamie, he found it hard to have an honest conversation with Mike and Matt, even though he trusted them. Maybe his crush was in the way? And more than that, he still didn't understand why he had come to trust them. But like this, behind his secret identity, he could actually open up to the men he trusted.

“Scorpio is trusting. Very trusting. We ran into another supposed hero before and she betrayed us. At this point, we can't know who is actually good and who isn't. Being a Zodiac isn't a guarantee for them to be good, even if they fought against the Hydra”, replied Jamie with a sigh.

“You... You should rest some more”, offered Matt gently. “You can stay until you feel good enough to leave, but please don't push yourself now to make things worse. You're safe here.”

Jamie bit his tongue to keep from saying that he knew that. If this weren't Mike and Matt, Jamie would have been out the window the very moment he had woken up. Because yes, he did have trust-issues. Even before Libra had betrayed them. The thought of Libra still made Jamie frown. The goal was to take the gem away from the woman and find someone trustworthy to carry Libra. Or at least that was the goal Jamie had set himself. The way Leo had told him, it wasn't the Zodiac himself who was  _evil_ . It was the human influence. So they had to get Libra the Zodiac away from the human host, to give to someone worthy of being a hero. Jamie's eyes wandered to look at the retreating forms of Mike and Matt. Would perhaps one of them...? Shaking his head, Jamie leaned back again. Just a little more rest before he would leave.

“I like your chosen mates”, stated a perky, curious voice.

Blinking, Jamie saw how Leo materialized from his marble. “They're not...  _mine_ , Leo. And really, how did you allow for me to just be taken away by random people?”

“No—ot random”, huffed the red lion and shook himself. “They're _your_ humans. I wanted to go and get Scorpio really quickly. But then they showed up and I knew you would be safe with them and they brought you here and got a human doctor to make sure you're alright.”

Jamie sighed and reached out to pat Leo between the ears as he closed his eyes. Just a little more rest and then he would be on his way back home. It wasn't a good idea to stay too long, it might tempt him into saying things he wasn't supposed to say. Not even necessarily his secret identity, but more so the fact that he knew things about Matt and Mike – things the friendly neighborhood superhero was not supposed to know about them.

“They really are good people”, whispered Jamie lowly, with the smallest smile. “I mean... they took a total stranger home to patch him up. Sure, I'm a hero, but still... they endangered themselves by doing so. Hydra could have followed them.”

“Yes”, purred Leo, pawing at the blanket. “Good humans. You picked well.”

“Speaking of picking well”, drawled Jamie reluctantly. “I had a thought.”

“Mh?”, grunted Leo, rolling onto his side so Jamie would scratch his belly.

“Libra. You say Libra isn't a bad guy, that either their human is... a bad seed, or the bad guys got to them first and got into the human's head”, started Jamie, staring up at the ceiling.

“Ye—es”, nodded Leo as he waited for Jamie to get to the point.

“Say, theoretically, if we can get to them and get the gem from her, can we give Libra to a more responsible human, an ally?”, asked Jamie. “I mean, how deep is the bond between a human and their Zodiac companion? Could you theoretically rebond to someone else?”

“Yes. We can always only bond with one human at a time – so not grand our powers to multiple humans at the same moment. But... we _can_ cut the bond and once we're unbound, we can find a different human to bond with”, confirmed Leo with a thoughtful frown. “But the thing is, we can only bond with a human who was born under our star-sign.”

“Okay. So, just have to find a Libra to bond with the Libra”, hummed Jamie. “I wonder when Mike and Matt's birthdays are...”

Leo huffed at that and shook himself. “You are a strange human. You can't court your chosen mates but you could ask them out to become superheroes with you...?”

“I trust them”, shrugged Jamie with a frown. “There... aren't many people I trust. Ally and Andy are kids, they're not being dragged into this. Babs already _is_ in this and... Jessie... I can't do that to her. She's my baby-sister. I'm supposed to protect her, not put her in danger.”

“I think your sister can handle way more than you give her credit for”, stated Leo.

“Just because she _can_ handle a lot doesn't mean she should _have_ to handle it”, countered Jamie and raised both eyebrows. “She's already been through enough, losing our mom and home and... and it's enough. We fought hard to make this life for ourselves.”

Leo hummed at that, not commenting but looking at Jamie softly. Jamie sighed and rolled onto his side as much as his ribs allowed it, closing his eyes to nap. Not Jessie, for the past years he had done _everything_ in his powers to shield her. He'd find a way to solve this without involving her.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jamie's [character sheet](https://the-zodiacs-written-in-the-stars.tumblr.com/post/169858667282/leo-james-saint-john) and [superhero/civil design](https://the-zodiacs-written-in-the-stars.tumblr.com/post/170377435252/leo-james-saint-john-character-sheet-here).


	10. Babara Burkhart

_Chapter 10: Babara Burkhart_

 

When Babara had been barely a baby, her mother had died to save her life with the power of love-

Babara had never met her father, but never could she have guessed he was a god and that--

In her past life, Babara had been the princess of the moon, before her tragic death---

Okay, okay, okay, so maybe Babara wasn't a Potter or a Jackson or even a Tsukino. She was a Burkhart without tragic backstory, or meaningful parentage, or a Great Prophecy.

Babara Brunhilde Burkhart (thanks for _that_ , mom...) had been born on a chilly November-night in Vienna, born and raised in Austria all of her life. She had two loving parents, neither of them dead or abandoning her or having some deep, dark, life-altering family-secret. They weren't rich but also never had to worry about having food on the table or getting new clothes.

And every summer, she got to spend at her grandparents' farm in the alps. Because her parents thought that Vienna was too much of a big city and that she shouldn't lose touch to nature (her mother having grown up on her grandparents' farm). But that was okay, because her grandparents were great – and she wasn't the only one who got to spend the summer there. Her cousin, Sebastian Weinberg, was also sent there every summer by his mother for the very same reasoning. That only made the summers extra awesome, because Sebastian was only two years older than her and he lived all the way in Berlin in Germany, so the two didn't really get to see each other a lot. But every summer, they got to be together at the farm and have adventures together.

Sebastian was a total  _nerd_ and the two cousins didn't have a lot in common aside from that, so it was even better that they got to form this bond. As a single-child, Babara liked to experience what it was like to live with another child like that, so that even when they grew older and their parents didn't 'force' them to go anymore, they still opted to. To see their grandparents and to see each other.

When Sebastian was seventeen, the introverted nerd met his best friend – Melanie Maguire. Online, writing  _Harry Potter_ fanfiction. For Babara, who had always been the heart of every social event and had an easy time making friends with anyone she met, the concept was slightly odd, but she was happy for him. Especially when the two got to meet for the first time and Babs came to realize it was more than just some random stranger on the internet Basty liked to text with. That was a  _real_ friendship. So real, in fact, that the two made plans to move to the same city, country not further narrowed down. Somehow, Babs didn't really like the idea of Basty leaving for good.

Using the puppy-dog eyes of doom (patent pending), Babs convinced Sebastian to take her with him. That the two should move together. After all, that best friend of Basty's wasn't going to move there alone either, she had a little brother she was very close to and didn't want to part ways with.

That was how, in the year 2011, Babara Burkhart and Sebastian Weinberg moved to Los Angeles together, shortly thereafter followed by Melanie and Michael Maguire.

Nothing about Babs' life qualified her to be some great superhero.

There was no tragic loss in her background – her grandparents were happily alive too. Her family was very normal and not magical or anything. She worked hard to get to where she was now, with some missteps but who didn't have those. Yet somehow, for some reason, she had been chosen to become a superhero, a protector of Earth. Scorpio.

 

~*~

 

“Y... You _reckless_ idiot!”, exclaimed Babs angrily, throwing her hands up. “Oh, Bee, you shouldn't go on solo missions. That's dangerous, Bee. You should have called me, Bee.”

Jamie grumbled and winced as he sat down on his bed, holding his ribs. “I deserve that.”

“You deserve much more!”, grunted Babs annoyed. “Take off your shirt.”

“Hah. So you only want to get me naked too”, sighed Jamie dramatically.

Babs gave him the stink-eye, while Scorpio and Leo curled together on the small couch in the corner, grooming each other. With another wince did Jamie start to peel his shirt off. Biting her lips, Babara rubbed her hands together and closed her eyes for a moment to concentrate.

“How are you stitched up?”, asked Babs surprised when she saw the wound.

“Matt and Mike called a doctor friend of theirs”, mumbled Jamie, cheeks heating up a little.

“You are so damn lucky that they took you with them and you didn't get caught by the bad guys”, grumbled Babs with a glare as she rested her hands on the wound, making Jamie wince. “That's what you get for nearly getting yourself killed. Idiot.”

She had been training her healing skills. Working with the water inside the cells to close the wound. It took time and it exhausted her, but the others were going to ask questions if they noticed. Even though Jamie would totally deserve to walk around with that wound until it healed naturally.

“Don't worry me like this”, sighed Babs softly. “I don't know what I'd do if you died, Jay.”

“I'm not going to die”, promised Jamie, resting his forehead against hers. “I swear.”

“Besides, I wouldn't know how to _explain_ it to Jess”, grumbled Babs with a glare.

That made Jamie laugh and wince a little. “Sorry. Yeah. Okay. No dying.”

“Or you could just tell your sister”, offered Babs just to sigh and lift her hands up in defeat. “Okay, okay, okay. I kno—ow you're not going to 'drag her into this'...”

Jamie narrowed his eyes at her in warning. The two were usually so close and agreed on everything. There was just one thing they might never agree on. And that was Jessie. Ever since their mother had died, Jamie had been the sole caretaker of his sister. Ten years. Jamie had only been sixteen himself back then. It figured that he would become overprotective, because that was the role he had always played in their relationship. The overprotective big brother, shielding her. Personally, Babs thought it would be easier to tell Jessie so Jessie knew where they went, so Jessie knew to care for the kids and knew what might happen to Jamie and Babs. But Babara knew she couldn't tell Jamie how to handle his own family. He'd have to make that decision himself.

 

~*~

 

“Don't think too hard, you might fry something.”

Babs scowled and turned to glare at Jessie. The brunette raised one eyebrow as she tried to look over Babara's shoulder at the newspaper. There was another article about Sagittarius, Cancer, Aquarius and Taurus. They were doing... good. Better than the first time Babs and Jamie had met them, really. Still, there was _something_ about Aquarius...

“I'm picking the kids off from school later. Want me to get something from the store?”, asked Jessie.

“I... think we're good”, replied Babs and shook her head.

Lifting up the newspaper, Babs took a closer look, squinting at the photo some more. Jessie huffed.

“You want me to leave you and the newspaper alone...?”, asked Jessie.

“Ha, ha, ha”, drawled Babs unimpressed. “No. I... I gotta... uh... I gotta go.”

“Where? What—Babara!”, called Jessie after Babs.

But Babara was already out of the apartment, the newspaper in one hand, grabbing her leather-jacket with her free hand and hurrying through the bar, not minding anyone.

 

~*~

 

Reaching her destination, Babara started knocking on the door hard and repeatedly. A glare was etched into her features as the door opened. Moments later and the door opened to an unusually disheveled Tanya. Her normally so meticulously put-up hair was only in a loose pony-tail. She was wearing her favorite turquoise dress. Frowning at her, Tanya tucked her hair behind her ear.

“Babs? What... can I do for you?”, asked Tanya slowly. “It's been a while since you came over.”

Eyebrows drawn together in determination, Babs held the newspaper up and into Tanya's face. “That's you. Aquarius. That's _you_. Of course it's you.”

“Wh... What are you talking about?”, asked Tanya, the look of a deer in the headlights on her face.

“Don't lie to me, Tatiana Yevgeniyevna Tarasova!”, exclaimed Babara in warning.

It _always_ paid off to learn middle-names – or in this case, father's names – for maximum efficiency of scolding. Tanya immediately looked like a scolded small puppy. Rolling her eyes, Babs pushed past her ex and into the apartment. It really had been a while since she had last been here. Things had been majorly awkward for a couple months after their breakup. Curiously, Babs looked around. It made her smile, because it still all looked exactly the same as she remembered it. After all, Tanya was not a fan of change, even the smallest. It had been very... tiresome for Babs back in the day, when Babs had been living with Tanya for a while. Everything had its very specific place and Tanya always fussed when it was out of place. That was, in retrospect, probably why the two had broken up because Babs considered herself creative-chaotic. They just clashed too often.

“You don't actually-”, started Tanya again, rather weakly.

“Tanya”, grunted Babs in warning, glaring at her. “I know your boobs.”

“...What?”, asked Tanya confused.

Babs rolled her eyes and motioned vaguely in the general direction of Tanya's chest. “Your boobs. I spent months sleeping on those. Among other things. I know them. And the rest of you. Like, that's you, in a very tight dress and sure with your hair open, but still it's y _ou_.”

Ducking her head with a troubled expression, Tanya joined Babs on the couch. “Did... Jamie figure it out too then...?”

Babs snorted and shook her head. “Please. That boy walked right past me when I had blue hair last year. You wear your hair open and put on a mask and he is completely lost. I love the boy, but he has absolutely no abilities to recognize people when they change their appearance.”

Tanya laughed softly and nodded. It was true. Jamie really sucked when someone changed a major part of their appearance. So Tanya, who always wore her hair pinned up, with flowing curls? That alone would already throw him off but an actual mask...? There was no way Jamie was going to figure this out, Babs knew that. Which only made things harder for her though...

“You have to promise me not to tell him”, stated Tanya, with a surprising amount of seriousness. “No one should know. You shouldn't either. But you have to promise to keep my secret, to not tell _anyone_. Not Jamie, not Basty, not Jessie. No one. You promise?”

Babs winced, even though she had known this was coming. “Of course I promise. I'm not one to spill other people's secrets, Tanya. You _know_ that.”

And Tanya smiled at her confidently, knowing this to be true. Because it was. Which was _a problem_. Because heaven forbid that Babs can have it easy, huh? Just tell Tanya that Jamie was Leo and tell Jamie that Tanya was Aquarius and then they could all work together. It'd be _so easy_. But she knew she couldn't just tell Jamie's secret identity to anyone, not even someone she knew Jamie trusted. And now that Tanya had made her promise, she couldn't just go to Jamie either. _Urgh_.

“How? I mean, why? You're not exactly the type to... you know...”, drawled Babs awkwardly.

“It just... happened”, replied Tanya, tucking her hair behind her ear and frowning. “I just... it's a responsibility that I can't just shake off or ignore. That's not who I am, Varya.”

Okay, that was true. Tanya was a hard-working and serious person who never avoided any task, regardless of how hard it was. She wouldn't just duck out of becoming a hero. Still, Babs couldn't quite imagine Tanya battling monsters. Then again, supposedly she had already _seen_ it. Aquarius. She had seen Aquarius and Taurus fight side by side.

“Oh... Your sword-fighting lessons”, drawled Babs with wide-eyes.

Tanya had learned traditional sword-dancing as a child and later on taken to learn sword-fight too, since she had already mastered the blade in her own ways. That did explain the big sword.

“The problem is that we have not much experience. Sure, we've been going out for over a month now. And we have _some_... vague... idea of what is going on, but I feel like Leo and Scorpio know more than us, but they... they refuse to work with us.”

Tanya frowned in frustration, balling one fist. Eyebrows knitted, Babara reached out to grasp Tanya's hand and try to sooth her a little. Tanya looked up and took a deep breath.

“You just... have to prove yourselves to them”, offered Babara gently. “They're a team and they don't know you. It figures that they can't just... trust strangers blindly? Who's to know who the good guys and the bad guys _really_ are?”

“We!”, exclaimed Tanya annoyed. “We're supposed to know who the good guys are! There are twelve Zodiacs. They are supposed to be the good guys, the protectors!”

Babara knew that. But she wasn't supposed to know that; the general public knew nothing about what was actually going on and what the meaning of anything really was. They were just scared of all the monsters and knew some heroes were protecting them in colorful costumes.

“Oh, really?”, asked Babs in fake surprise. “What do you know? I mean, what is _going on_?”

It'd be a good chance to get a grasp on what the new guys knew compared to what Babs and Jamie knew. Tanya frowned for a moment before she got up and motioned for Babara to follow her to the bedroom. Even in there, everything was still the same, all the way to the exact position of the light-turquoise flower-vase next to the bed with exactly three white tulips in it. Babs remembered having regularly bought her girlfriend such tulips too, after she noticed that Tanya liked to keep them next to her bed. It always made the blonde smile in a cute, pleased way. Babara paused when she noticed that one thing had changed in this room. Her eyes widened in surprise as she looked at the wall opposite the bed. There had been some weird modern art piece of blues and greens and whites that was horribly obnoxious in Babs' opinion. Now it was gone and replaced by a large white board.

In Tanya's neat, nearly print-like handwriting were things written on it, magnets pinning pictures next to the writing. _AQUARIUS_ , _TAURUS_ , _SAGITTARIUS_ , _CANCER_. In the upper left corner, in big, bold letters, each with a newspaper clipping with a picture of them beneath it. Not even self-taken photos. Clever. Just in case the wrong people followed her home and found this. There was a rounded square around the four, indicating that they were a team. In the upper middle of the board was written _LEO_ and _SCORPIO_ with a picture from last month's front-page. There were further notes scribbled in the circle around their names and pictures. _Team Lionheart, potential allies_. Beneath the _LEO_ was also marked down _fire-elemental, uses sword, incarnation of former leader_. Mh. Interesting, but not surprising that their companions had given them some background information of past incarnations too. And yes, in most cases, Leo had been the leader. Zeus, the king of the 'gods'. Beneath _SCORPIO_ , it said _water-elemental, whip-wielder, wild-card_. Babara grinned pleased by that. Be it Hermes or Serket or Rhiannon, Scorpio really had partnered with a wild array of different personalities, unlike say Cancer who had always picked the greatest, strongest warriors – Ares and Tyr and Sobek. Vaguely magic and healing and deliveries. A jack of all trades, as Scorpio had told her, which was why those under her patronage were always known for multiple realms – Hermes, the god of travelers and thieves and tricksters and the deliverer of the gods, Rhiannon, the goddess of magic and the moon and night and death and horses. And that suited Babs just right. Being so specialized in only one or two skills seemed rather boring to her. Jamie too, he had more than one specialization. The lightning of Zeus and Thor was as much the heavenly fire as Amun-Ra's sun-fire; still, lightning was a fire-power only Leo could control.

Shaking her head to make herself focus again, Babs turned toward the rest of the board. In the upper right corner it said _LIBRA_ , with a large question-mark beneath; a picture missing. _Potential enemy?, misguided?_ was written beneath it. Good questions that Babara couldn't answer either, sadly enough. When they had first met Libra, Babara had thought they had made an ally. The betrayal, learning that she was not on their side... Shaking her head again, this time more violently, Babs looked to see what else there was beside the ones she knew about too.

Much to her surprise, there was some new information on there. In the lower left corner, beneath _GEMINI_ , was a dark, not good photo of a person in an ally at night. Looked like a screenshot from a surveillance camera. Frowning, Babs knelt down to see. _Air-elemental,_ v _igilante, works alone, uses batons, protects_. Huh. That... That was actually news to Babara.

“Who's this? I never saw them in the news before?”, asked Babara innocently.

“Gemini. Or at least I think so. He – well, I'm actually not _sure_ on that one, the costume isn't very revealing about body-shape or _anything_ , really – has been working as a vigilante, since around the time Leo and Scorpio first appeared. I went through the local news all the way back to the date the Zodiacs arrived, to see if I can find any more. After all, there _should_ be twelve. The only solid lead I found was a vigilante who has been keeping the streets at night safe. Beating up robbers and rapists, predominantly protecting girls who are out alone late. Usually, there is a symbol left behind with spray-paint, right above the tied-up criminal. Four lines that cross in a square. But I think it's not a square; I think it's a hastily drawn Gemini-sign”, explained Tanya. “Whoever it is, they're good though. Good at fighting and good at dodging people who try to approach...”

Babs hummed and made a mental note to look into this too. Interesting. She and Jamie had been wondering where the rest of the Zodiacs were too. Seemingly, Gemini really was the only one Tanya had a lead on though. _VIRGO – earth-elemental, ARIES - fire-elemental, CAPRICORN - earth-elemental, PISCES - water-elemental_ , they all stood empty. Four Zodiacs still stood unaccounted for. Were they aligned with Libra...? Had they gotten lost at their arrival on Earth? Were they still training to not go out there completely unprepared? Or were they entirely declining the responsibility and danger of becoming heroes...? Who knew.

Babara sat down on Tanya's bed, leaning back onto her hands and looking at the chart. In dead-center, the villains. She grinned fondly at the name Tanya had given them.

“Snake Nest Villains?”, asked Babara amused.

“They're snake-themed”, grumbled Tanya with a faint blush. “Their leader is Serpentarius. Literally the snake-bearer. The second-in-command, from everything I've seen so far, is Serpens, the snake. Then Hydra and Hydrus. Sure, there are plenty of... one-off-minions. Constellations that... admittedly, mainly Scorpio and Leo had beaten. Monsters possessing innocent civilians. But those three – Serpens, Hydra and Hydrus – are the reoccurring ones. They're... bigger.”

“You're adorable”, grinned Babs fondly.

“Oh, shut up”, huffed Tanya embarrassed and crossed her arms over her chest.

But true enough, inside the largest circle, the one for the villains, she had written those four names the biggest, _SERPENTARIUS_ in the center, the other three in a triangle around it. A sheet of paper was pinned there, a printed-out list of all 88 constellations, with those crossed out that Leo and Scorpio had already defeated. She really was diligent and loved details. Maybe Babs should get onto such a wall and list too. It would make the job easier. Then again... she lived with two nosy children and an equally nosy Irish woman. Such a chart would stay hidden for like half a day.

“Promise me you'll call when you're in a tight spot”, stated Babara after a beat.

“Varya, there's nothi-”, started Tanya with a chuckle.

Babara got up, standing to her full height in front of Tanya (and effectively being on eye-level with Tanya's boobs...), head tilted back to stare up at Tanya with her most serious look. It shut Tanya up.

“ _Promise_ me you will call if you're in a tight spot”, repeated Babs. “There are things I can't say, but if you need me, I will _always_ be there to help you, Tatiana.”

Tanya nodded, albeit reluctantly. If Tanya took this clue to figure out Babs' secret all on her own, then good. If not, oh well. Babara was going to find a way to solve this mess sooner or later anyway. With a sudden, sunny smile did Babs pull Tanya into a hug.

“Stay safe, blondie”, whispered Babs softly. “Don't you dare get yourself killed.”

“I'll do my best”, promised Tanya with a chuckle, wrapping her arms around Babara. “Thank you.”

 

~*~

 

An hour later, Babara was once again knocking hard and obnoxiously against a door. It took considerably much longer for this one to open and the face greeting her was by far not as friendly as Tanya's. Sebastian Weinberg glared, hair messy, no shirt and pants on backward.

“Basty! My favorite cousin!”, exclaimed Babs with a bright smile.

“I'm your _only_ cousin”, grunted Basty annoyed, ruffling his ginger hair. “And I thought I got rid of you when you moved out. What do you want...? I was busy doing... something.”

“Hello, Angel, I guess you're 'something'?”, greeted Babs, waving past Basty.

Angelique Lamour was flushed a bright red, less from embarrassment and more from... exercise, Babs guessed. She was wearing one of Basty's light-green hoodies and nothing else, rubbing the ankles of her long, pale legs against each other. Her fingers were playing with the thick, blonde braid laying over her shoulder, on her lips a smile that was pure amusement.

“Ye—ep. I'm something”, confirmed Angel lightly. “But it's okay. An orgasm gets better with built-up and delay anyway, so come on inside. What's going on?”

“A... Angelique!”, hissed Sebastian, his face dark-red. “You can't just-She's my _cousin_!”

“You're so cute when you're a prude, mon amour”, laughed Angel delighted. [French trans: _my love_ ]

Babara grinned impishly as she just ducked beneath Basty's arm and walked over to sit next to Angel on the couch. She used to live with them. Well, she used to live with Basty, back when they first moved to Los Angeles. And then, five years ago, after Angel and Jamie had broken up a few months prior, Basty  _finally_ got the girl. Oh, he had had a crush on Angel ever since he met Jamie's then girlfriend at the  _St. John's Pub_ . But he had thought he stood no chance with Angel, especially since Angel and Jamie had been dating. The fates were on their side though and after Angel and Jamie broke up, Angel found her way to Basty – and the two were just perfect together. Babs had never seen Basty with anyone the way he was with Angel. She brought out the best in him. Regardless of how cute she thought they were, they got rather obnoxious to live with after Angel started spending most of her days at their apartment, which was the reason she had ultimately moved out and decided to move in with Jamie and Jessie.

“No—ow, what's up, Babsie?”, asked Angel and threw her long legs over Babs' lap.

“Don't call me that”, groaned Babara and wiggled her nose.

“Aw, you're so cute”, grinned Angel and bopped Babs' nose.

Babs grumbled a little and got more comfortable. “Okay, so... hypothetically speaking... Say you know a secret from a friend and if you were to tell another friend, that would _actually_ be beneficial to both parties. Do you tell the second friend or not...?”

“Mh...”, drawled Angel thoughtfully, twirling a bright-blonde strand around her finger. “If they will both benefit from it, then they would be grateful in the end, so I would tell them...”

Basty scolded, which was his default facial expression anyway. Far too serious. Babs raised an eyebrow, looking at her cousin and waiting for him to express what annoyed him.

“You shouldn't tell your friend's secret”, stated Basty as he started pacing. “Mel is... hiding something from me. And I would be rather mad if someone else were to tell me. Because that'd mean I hadn't yet earned the right to know that secret. Whatever it is, it's Mel's to tell and she will tell me once she's ready. I know that, so I'm not pushing and I wouldn't want for anyone to get involved, Babs. It's a matter of trust, simple as that.”

That gave Babs a pause. In a way, Basty was probably right. Even though she knew Tanya and Jamie could trust each other... in the end, it should be _their_ decision when or if to trust each other about this secret. Groaning, Babs ran her hand over her face.

“Ange—el, this isn't the answer I wanted”, groaned Babs frustrated.

“Basty, mon amour, go get the ice-cream?”, requested Angel with a smile.

“And put on a shirt, cuz! No one wants to see that!”, called Babs out.

“Now, that's just factually wrong”, chided Angel, wagging her finger at him.

Babs chuckled and got more comfortable as she waited for her cousin to bring the ice.

 

~*~

 

“This looks like you've been... busy... What is this, Bee?”, asked Jamie carefully.

Babs bit her lips and looked up at him. Scooting over a little, she motioned for Jamie to join her on the floor, which he reluctantly did. Printed articles were spread out in front of her.

“Okay so I did a little bit of digging, because it's really weird that there are only seven out of twelve Zodiacs accounted for, right? And I found this. A vigilante who's mainly been protecting women from rapists at night and people from robberies. They always leave this sign on the wall where they leave the tied-up criminal for the police to find and I think it's the symbol of Gemini.”

Babs pointed at the crime-scene photos from a newspaper article three days ago. Some tied-up thug with the symbol sprayed right above his head. Jamie frowned and pulled it closer to look at the symbol. It just looked like the Roman number two, so it was a bit of a stretch...

“It makes sense, I guess. Became a hero too, but without a team, staying small-scale”, mused Jamie thoughtfully, tilting his head. “So, do you want to... track them?”

“I figured that could be interesting”, shrugged Babs with a grin. “See who they are, what they're up to. We're only two. We're supposed to be _twelve_ , Jamie. We need to find and approach the others.”

“But-”, started Jamie with a serious frown.

“I know, I know, you still don't trust the Unicorn Princess Squad”, huffed Babs.

“Is... Is that really what they're called?”, asked Jamie doubtfully, frowning.

“It's what the newspaper dubbed them after seeing the unicorn and, mistakenly so, Aquarius look all princessy”, chuckled Babara amused. “They figure she's the leader and so far, Sagittarius is the only companion the newspaper caught on camera. I think it's cute and I'm glad we picked our own name before the news could. That'd have been a disaster...”

“Oh yeah”, grunted Jamie before he shook his head. “But no. I don't trust them yet.”

“They've done heroics all on their own”, argued Babs. “They took down Musca all on their own last week. If they are aligned with the bad guys, this would be the most fucking elaborate scheme to gain our trusts ever! You _have_ to see that, James.”

Jamie frowned at that. It was rare for Babs to call him 'James'. Babara crossed her arms seriously and glared at Jamie, awaiting his answer. Running his hands through his hair, Jamie leaned back against the bed and sighed. He looked up at the ceiling with an even deeper frown.

“I'm still not convinced, Babs. I just...”, drawled Jamie.

“Jay, we're supposed to be a team of twelve. We are supposed to trust ten other heroes. If you keep standing in the way of that and keep rejecting anyone who offers to help us... then we will _fail_. Fail this city and planet and the whole purpose of why we got these powers”, argued Babs urgently, taking Jamie's hand. “Yes, this version of Libra betrayed us. Yes, she nearly killed you. Yes, you not breathing and nearly bleeding out in my arms will haunt me to my dying day. But that only means we really do need allies, so I will never have to stand there alone. So we have back-up. So we can liberate Libra from this human and find a worthy human host.”

There was doubt and caution in Jamie's eyes as he regarded Babs and mulled her words over. She knew he'd need some longer, but she also knew that she was  _right_ .

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Babs' [character sheet](https://the-zodiacs-written-in-the-stars.tumblr.com/post/178485158542/scorpio-babara-burkhart) and [superhero/civil design](https://the-zodiacs-written-in-the-stars.tumblr.com/post/178485453742/scorpio-babara-burkhart-character-sheet-here).
> 
> Nooow, I decided to take the story into my updating schedule rotation, because I've been just... randomly updating and writing for it. Now, there's a fixed date, every fourth Saturday, that I'll update.

**Author's Note:**

> I decided to post this story on AO3 too. I started it on tumblr, where I made **[a side-blog dedicated to it](https://the-zodiacs-written-in-the-stars.tumblr.com/sheets_masterpost)** , but tumblr just isn't practical for stories.
> 
> Now, if needed for a little refresher, links to the character sheets:
> 
> \- Matteo 'Matt' di Girasole/Sagittarius' [character sheet](https://the-zodiacs-written-in-the-stars.tumblr.com/post/169847352302/sagittarius-matteo-di-girasole) and [superhero/civil design](https://the-zodiacs-written-in-the-stars.tumblr.com/post/176162901017/sagittarius-matteo-di-girasole-character-sheet)
> 
> \- Michael 'Mike' Maguire/Cancer's [character sheet](https://the-zodiacs-written-in-the-stars.tumblr.com/post/169858451827/cancer-michael-maguire) and [superhero/civil design](https://the-zodiacs-written-in-the-stars.tumblr.com/post/176162903307/cancer-michael-maguire-character-sheet-here)
> 
> \- Tatiana 'Tanya' Tarasova/Aquarius' [character sheet](https://the-zodiacs-written-in-the-stars.tumblr.com/post/169898042602/aquarius-tatiana-tarasova) and [superhero/civil design](https://the-zodiacs-written-in-the-stars.tumblr.com/post/172892070157/aquarius-tatiana-tarasova-character-sheet-here)
> 
> \- Melanie 'Mel' Maguire/Taurus' [character sheet](https://the-zodiacs-written-in-the-stars.tumblr.com/post/171914907977/taurus-melanie-maguire) and [superhero/civil design](https://the-zodiacs-written-in-the-stars.tumblr.com/post/171914781332/taurus-melanie-maguire-character-sheet-here)
> 
> \- James 'Jamie' Saint John/Leo's [character sheet](https://the-zodiacs-written-in-the-stars.tumblr.com/post/169858667282/leo-james-saint-john) and [superhero/civil design](https://the-zodiacs-written-in-the-stars.tumblr.com/post/170377435252/leo-james-saint-john-character-sheet-here)
> 
> \- Babara 'Babs' Burkhart/Scorpio's [character sheet](https://the-zodiacs-written-in-the-stars.tumblr.com/post/178485158542/scorpio-babara-burkhart) and [superhero/civil design](https://the-zodiacs-written-in-the-stars.tumblr.com/post/178485453742/scorpio-babara-burkhart-character-sheet-here)
> 
> \- Jessica 'Jessie' Saint John/Aries' [character sheet](https://the-zodiacs-written-in-the-stars.tumblr.com/post/170391747492/aries-jessica-saint-john) and [superhero/civil design](https://the-zodiacs-written-in-the-stars.tumblr.com/post/179426701213/aries-jessica-saint-john-character-sheet-here)
> 
> \- Elizabeth 'Lizzy' Liddell/Virgo's [character sheet](https://the-zodiacs-written-in-the-stars.tumblr.com/post/179394248062/virgo-elizabeth-liddell) and [superhero/civil design](https://the-zodiacs-written-in-the-stars.tumblr.com/post/179415129660/virgo-elizabeth-liddell-character-sheet-here)


End file.
